Eating a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables (FV) throughout life is crucial for preventing various types of malnutrition, reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases, and promoting overall well-being. Childhood presents a prime opportunity to establish lifelong dietary habits. The World Health Organization advocates promoting healthy diets by integrating culinary skills development, especially in schools. The Cooking in Yorkshire Project (1), a cluster-randomized controlled trial, assessed the impact of the PhunkyFoods programme on dietary behaviour, nutrition knowledge, and cooking skills among primary-aged children (7-9 years) in two-areas of North Yorkshire. We performed a secondary analysis of baseline-data to explore FV intakes of children by deprivation level, provision of free school meals (FSM) and mealtimes at baseline.

The Child and Diet Evaluation Tool (CADET) (2) was used to assess the self-reported frequency of consumption of 13 fruits and 18 vegetables on the previous day, categorized by mealtime. Poisson regression was used to evaluate associations between FV consumption (portion/day), deprivation level (categorized based on a median level of 22,642 of the Index of Multiple Deprivation rank 2019 to determine high or low levels) and FSM percentage per mealtime and per day.

Twenty-six schools (n = 333 children, 57% girls) completed the dietary assessment. 60% of children reported consuming FV 5 times a day. Significant differences were observed in the proportions of children’s FV intake by mealtimes. During breakfast, 92% of children did not consume any vegetable, and 50% did not eat fruit (p<0.001). At lunchtime, approximately 35% of children reported not consuming any fruits or vegetables. Overall, consumption of FV recorded (7 portions per day) was considerably higher than national average consumption (3 standard portions) (3). The school FSM index was negatively associated with child vegetable intake. For children in schools with high FSM percentage compared to low percentage, the frequency of vegetable intake was 31% lower at lunch (95%CI: 56, 85; p=0.001) and 15% lower over the whole day (95%CI: 76, 94; p=0.003), after adjusting for sex and area. No associations were observed in fruit intake by mealtimes or deprivation level.

North Yorkshire schools offer free meals to financially supported children, aligning with healthy eating policies. However, negative associations observed between FSM and vegetable intake indicate there may be room for enhanced FV promotion.