Salt reduction strategies in Portuguese school meals, from pre-school to secondary education-the Eat Mediterranean program
Author(s)
Rito, Ana Isabel
Mendes, Sofia
Santos, Mariana
Goiana-da-Silva, Francisco
Cappuccio, Francesco Paolo
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
High sodium (salt) consumption is associated with an increased risk of developing non-communicable diseases. However, in most European countries, Portugal included, sodium intake is still high. This study aimed to assess the sodium content of school meals before and after the Eat Mediterranean (EM) intervention-a community-based program to identify and correct nutritional deviations through the implementation of new school menus and through schools' food handlers training. EM (2015-2017) was developed in 25 schools (pre to secondary education) of two Portuguese Municipalities, reaching students aged 3-21 years old. Samples of the complete meals (soup + main course + bread) from all schools were collected, and nutritional quality and laboratory analysis were performed to determine their nutritional composition, including sodium content. Overall, there was a significant decrease (-23%) in the mean sodium content of the complete school meals, which was mainly achieved by the significant reduction of 34% of sodium content per serving portion of soup. In conclusion, EM had a positive effect on the improvement of the school meals' sodium content, among the participant schools. Furthermore, school setting might be ideal for nutrition literacy interventions among children, for flavors shaping, and for educating towards less salty food acceptance.
Date Issued
2020-07-24
Date Acceptance
2020-07-16
Citation
Nutrients, 2020, 12 (8)
ISSN
2072-6643
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
Nutrients
Volume
12
Issue
8
Copyright Statement
©2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open accessarticle distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Sponsor
National Institute of Health Research
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32722323
PII: nu12082213
Subjects
childhood obesity
community-based program
salt intake
school meals
sodium consumption
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Switzerland
Article Number
ARTN 2213