The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme has had a positive impact on youngsters’ diets, according to a study of 5,000 pupils.
Some 65 per cent of children ate fruit every day as a result of the initiative, researchers at Nottingham University found, compared to 46 per cent beforehand.
The scheme, which was rolled out nationally in 2002, provides a piece of free fruit to all those in the first three primary years.
The team at Nottingham University’s division of epidemiology and public health looked at more than 200 primary schools between 2003 and 2005, studying the fruit intake of more than 5,000 kids before, during and after taking part in the scheme.
The children were aged four or five when the project kicked off.
The research consisted of asking parents two questions: how many days in a typical week their child ate fruit, and how many pieces of fruit were consumed on average every day.
The study revealed that weekly intake almost doubled, from 7.5 piece of fruit to 14.
Dr Andrew Fogarty from Nottingham University said: “A diet rich in fruit is widely acknowledged to be beneficial to health, particularly with regard to the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer in adults, and the risk of asthma in children.
“It’s also likely that patterns of dietary intake of fruits and other healthy foods are established in early life. So it’s very important to develop interventions that increase regular fruit intake in young children, especially those from less affluent sectors of society, as diet may be one lifestyle factor contributing towards socio-economic differentials in health,” he added.
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