Three out of four Dutch primary school pupils (between 9 and 11 years old) eat too few vegetables, and four out of five eat too little fruit. To improve this, Dutch schools can participate in educational programmes about healthy eating: EU-Schoolfruit and Smaaklessen. But how effective are such programmes? Angeliek Verdonschot investigated this and observed Smaaklessen at fifteen schools. Smaaklessen consists of five lessons involving experiments, cooking, tasting and homework with the parents. Verdonschot also investigated the effect of EU-Schoolfruit in combination with Smaaklessen on children's healthy eating behaviour. She concludes that the teaching packages assessed are of high quality. However, the effect on pupils' eating behaviour depends on the school: at schools without a policy that promotes healthy eating as the norm—for example, no biscuits during breaks—children ate more vegetables and fruit after participating in EU-Schoolfruit. Children whose families paid less attention to healthy eating at home also ate more healthily after participating in a programme.
Smaaklessen and school fruit
Since 2017, the Smaaklessen programme has been used at approximately 7,000 primary schools in the Netherlands to introduce children to flavour development, consumer skills, healthy and sustainable eating, and cooking in a playful way. Smaaklessen consists of five lessons involving experiments, cooking, tasting and homework with the parents. Verdonschot also investigated the effect of EU-Schoolfruit in combination with Smaaklessen on children's healthy eating behaviour. EU-Schoolfruit encourages children to eat fruit and vegetables together in the classroom. Participating primary schools receive three free portions of vegetables and fruit every week for all pupils for 20 weeks.
Healthy eating at school and at home
Verdonschot believes that lessons about healthy eating should be given a permanent place in the curriculum of primary schools. It would also be beneficial if the teaching package involved parents.