Students trash more fruits and vegetables when they're forced to take them under a federal school lunch mandate, according to a study published Tuesday.
Researchers compared lunchtime fruit and vegetable consumption at two elementary schools before and after the mandate kicked in. The mandate requires students to take either a fruit or vegetable with a meal reimbursable under the school lunch program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The study in the journal Public Health Reports used digital imaging to more accurately track food students took away on their trays, and to compare it with food students dumped into the trash. It was performed at two elementary schools in the Northeast, surveyed in 2012 before the mandate and the next year after the mandate took effect.
Students throw out more fruits and vegetables when they’re forced to take them as part of their lunches, according to a study published Tuesday that offers yet another critique of the federal government’s mandate to make school meals healthier.
Researchers compared lunchtime fruit and vegetable consumption at two Northeast elementary schools before and after the mandate kicked in. The program requires students to take a fruit or vegetable with a meal that’s subsidized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is the setup at most schools nationwide.
The study in the journal Public Health Reports, used digital imaging to more accurately compare the amount of food that students put on their trays versus how much they later dumped as trash. The researchers first conducted their analysis in 2012, before the mandate took effect, and again the next year — after the initiative had begun.
Waste of fruits and vegetables increased by 56 percent after the mandate, from an average 0.25 cups thrown away to 0.39 cups. Moreover, students actually ate less of them. Fruit and vegetable consumption declined from 0.51 cup to 0.45 cup, said study leader Sarah Amin, a nutrition researcher at the University of Vermont.
