The impact of the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy on dietary quality in English and Scottish primary school children: evaluation of a natural experiment
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The Universal Infant Free School Meal (UIFSM) policy was introduced in September 2014 in England and January 2015 in Scotland and offered all infant schoolchildren (ages 4-7 years) a free school lunch, regardless of income. Yet, impacts of UIFSM on dietary intakes and or social inequalities are not known. A difference-in-differences study using the National Diet and Nutrition Survey assessed pooled pre-UIFSM (2010-2014) and post-UIFSM (2014-2017) dietary data. English or Scottish infant schoolchildren (4-7 years; N=458) were the intervention group with junior schoolchildren (8-11 years; N=401) as controls. We found that implementation of UIFSM led to an increase in infant schoolchildren having a school meal. Impacts on key food groups such as fruit and vegetables or sweetened beverages were not seen. However, there was evidence that the UIFSM policy lowered consumption of foods associated with packed lunches, such as crisps, and some nutrients, such as total fat and sodium. Policy impacts differed by income group, with larger effect sizes in low-income children. In conclusion, evaluation of UIFSM demonstrated some improvements on dietary quality but the findings suggest school meal quality needs to be improved to fully realise the benefits of UIFSM.
Date Issued
2022-04-12
Date Acceptance
2022-03-28
Citation
Nutrients, 2022, 14 (8)
ISSN
2072-6643
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
Nutrients
Volume
14
Issue
8
Copyright Statement
© 2022 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
Sponsor
NIHR
National Institute for Health Research
Grant Number
PD-SPH-2015-10055
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Nutrition & Dietetics
school lunch
nutrition
children
universal free school meals
policy evaluation
PACKED LUNCHES
FOOD
CONSUMPTION
LUNCHTIME
children
nutrition
policy evaluation
school lunch
universal free school meals
Child
Child, Preschool
Diet
Food Services
Humans
Lunch
Nutritive Value
Policy
Schools
Humans
Diet
Nutritive Value
Schools
Food Services
Child
Child, Preschool
Policy
Lunch
0908 Food Sciences
1111 Nutrition and Dietetics
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 1602