Nutritional quality of the school-day diet in Irish children (5-12 years)

BackgroundThe European Commission has identified schools as a priority setting for health promotion, including nutrition education and intervention. The present study examined the school-day diet of Irish primary-school children with the aim of identifying opportunities for dietary improvement. MethodsData from The National Children's Food Survey (2003-2004) were used to establish a dataset of school-days. Dietary intake data were collected from 594 children (5-12years) using a 7-day weighed food-record. The nutritional quality of the diet was examined for the total school-day and for food eaten before school', at school' and after school'. ResultsExamination of dietary intake on school-days has highlighted nutritional imbalances for intakes of fat, saturated fat, added sugars, sodium and dietary fibre (DF). Mean energy (E) intake for the overall school-day was 7.1MJ, with 16% of energy provided from food eaten before school', 33%E from food eaten at school' and 53% of energy from food eaten after school'. Relative to the overall school-day, food eaten before school' was lower in saturated fat and sodium, and higher in DF and many micronutrients. Food eaten at school' was relatively high in added sugars and sodium; lower in DF and micronutrients; and similar in saturated fat compared to the overall school-day. Food eaten after school' was relatively high in DF and vitamin A; similar in saturated fat, magnesium and sodium; and lower in added sugars and other micronutrients compared to the overall school-day. ConclusionsTo improve the overall nutritional quality of the school-day diet, food eaten at school should be targeted.