School lunch nutritional adequacy: what is served, consumed and wasted.

Objective: To determine nutritional adequacy of school lunch and to assess the impact of food waste on nutrient intake of primary schoolchildren.

Design: The weighing method was used for evaluating initial servings and plate waste for lunch. Energy and nutritional contents of meals served, consumed and wasted were estimated using the software Food Processor Plus.

Strategies to reduce plate waste in primary schools - experimental evaluation.

Objective: To determine and compare the effect of two interventions in reducing the plate waste of school lunches.

Design: A between-group analysis was conducted among children from three primary schools: (i) a group receiving intervention A, designed for children and focusing on nutrition education and food waste; (ii) a group receiving intervention B, intended for teachers and focusing on the causes and consequences of food waste; and (iii) a control group with no intervention. For each child, physical weighing of individual meals and leftovers was performed on three non-consecutive weeks at baseline (T0), 1 week (T1, short term) and 3 months (T2, medium term) following the intervention.