Australian children’s vegetable intake is below recommended levels and increasing consumption remains a strong focus for health, nutrition and obesity prevention initiatives. Increasing vegetable consumption is an example of a clear synergy between commercial and public health interests.
Low vegetable consumption affects all age groups
Despite the efforts of researchers, the vegetable industry and public health policy makers, vegetable consumption is below recommended intake across the whole population, for adults and children alike.
The need for best practice guidelines
Despite the wide range of initiatives and programs and research that aim to increase children’s vegetable intake, there is no clear guidance on what strategies are likely to be successful.
A major component of the VegKIT project was to produce updated best practice guidelines with the latest scientific literature and translate these into strategies for implementation by different stakeholders
By combining evidence-based strategies from different initiatives and highlighting the benefits in working collaboratively, the best practice guidelines aim to create greater and more sustained increases in Australian children’s vegetable intake.
The process of developing the guidelines
There were four steps involved in developing the guidelines.
Best practice guidelines for increasing children's vegetable consumption
For more information on the best practice guidelines, how they can be applied in different settings along with practical tools and resources please visit the following pages:
Long day care
OSHC & Schools
Industry & Growers
Researchers
Community & Public Health