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Food‐waste study in 10 classes of first grade students to examine the proposed USDA guidelines for the School Breakfast Program 2011
Author(s) -
Carr Noelle,
Kranz Sibylle
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.378.6
Subject(s) - food waste , attendance , test (biology) , environmental health , food group , consumption (sociology) , food service , food consumption , agricultural science , business , medicine , agricultural economics , engineering , environmental science , economics , marketing , waste management , economic growth , paleontology , social science , sociology , biology
In January of 2011, the USDA the proposed changes to the current regulations of the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. The changes include an increase the amount of foods that the schools are required to offer on a daily basis, a change that could have a significant effect on the schools. To examine the effect of increased food amount at breakfast on food consumption and food waste, this study was designed to compare two groups of first grade students: One group received the food based on the current regulations (control) while the other received the food based on the proposed regulations (test). Attendance data, solid food waste weights, and fluid waste were directly measured daily after breakfast for one week in a total of ten different classrooms. Results indicate that the test group wasted significantly more food than the control group. The students in the test group consumed on average 53.5% of the solid food served; the students in the control group consumed 70.7%. In the school district in which the study was conducted, the test breakfast menu resulted an 38.6% increase in cost/week compared to the control breakfast menu. This data indicate that children do not consume all of the currently offered foods at breakfast and that the proposed regulations may impose a significant increase in both food cost and food waste. Grant Funding Source : none