VegUP: The effect of a vegetable-focused menu in primary school canteens

The intervention consists of increased vegetable provision and online ordering changes in NSW primary school canteen menu's for an 8-week period. The menu changes consists of the following elements: 1. Novel vegetable-containing product A new vegetable-containing product ‘Rainbow Dippers’ will be introduced. This product concept was developed based on sensory science and knowledge on children’s food acceptance. The product contains a range of vegetable dippers which include a dipper (raw vegetable sticks) and a vegetable dip, and it will contain one serve of vegetables. The product was developed using insights from a consumer sensory acceptance test with children. The product will adhere to school guidelines concerning allergies and will be produced by a commercial producer and delivered for free to schools during the intervention period. 2. Changes to online menu structure/choice architecture Two changes will be made to the online menu structure: - Positioning changes will be made to fit with the “primacy effect” – the tendency to pay more attention to the first items in a list. Vegetable-containing items will be positioned higher than non-vegetable-containing items in their categories in the (online) menus. - Sandwiches with a protein component (e.g. cheese/ham/turkey/chicken) will contain one vegetable filling by default, to which parents can opt-out. Currently, parents/children need to opt-in for a vegetable filling. This strategy is based on the finding that decision makers have a tendency to choose the default among several possible actions, as a result of ‘loss aversion’. 3. Changes to hot foods The vegetable content in popular hot foods will be increased through recipe development, undertaken in collaboration with the canteen manager. An earlier menu analysis of primary school menus in NSW showed that only 49% of hot meals/foods contained vegetables. Canteen managers will be provided with advice and support on how the vegetable content of their most popular hot meals can be increased. They are encouraged to include students in the school to take part in a ‘taste test’ to select the winning recipes that will be introduced, in order to create student engagement. 4. Brochure with other suggestions to increase vegetable content Canteen managers will be provided with a leaflet containing other suggestions to increase the vegetable content of their menu. These suggestions are based on the results of a previous menu analysis for opportunities to increase the vegetable content of canteen menu’s. The possibilities to implement changes will be discussed individually with each canteen manager to fit around their current menu and practices. Canteen managers will be provided with an information pack on the changes which will be individually discussed and tailored to their situation by a research staff member with nutrition qualifications. Canteen managers can choose themselves how and which of the changes they will implement to fit with their schools, students and canteens needs. From the intervention perspective there will be no other changes to the foods other than addition of vegetables and order of items on menus. If canteen managers feel they need to withdraw a food item to comply with their menu policy (e.g. if addition of a new snack would require removal of another snack) then we will allow them to implement that. This additional change would then be recorded. Parents, students and staff will be informed about the menu changes after collection of baseline data (and before the new menu is introduced) via the school’s regular communication channels. All physical information materials were designed specifically for this study. Intervention adherence will be checked by recording which initial changes to the menu the canteen managers will implement, and a phone call mid-way and at the end of the intervention. In addition, weekly checks of the online menu will be conducted and delivery records of vegetables supplied by the commercial provider will be kept.