Does organic food intervention in the Danish schools lead to change dietary patterns?:results of a web based questionnaire survey among Danish school food coordinatorsR

Now, more than ever, there are serious health concerns for the growing prevalence of obese andoverweight children. Schools are well suited setting for the learning of children and young people,and this influence has the potential to play an important role in preventing children from becomingobese and overweight. The school at the same time is the focus of public organic food supplystrategies as well as the focus of innovation strategies that can increase the availability of healthierfood options. These strategies in some cases go hand in hand. The purpose of this research was toexamine whether organic food intervention strategies in school meal system could support thedevelopment of healthier eating patterns among children and adolescents. An importantprecondition for this is that the food environment becomes supportive for such eating. In the currentstudy this was determined through the comparisons between the food strategies of “organic” schoolto that of “non organic” schools in Denmark. Provision of meals in Danish schools in notcompulsory and function as an “value adding service” that schools and municipalities can decide onlocally. Therefore the study was undertaken u among school food coordinators in selected Danishprimary schools that was known to provide school meals. The study was conducted by means of aweb-based questionnaire. The data shows the relations regarding the school food service betweendifferent types of schools, and also based on the ways and methods of food provision. Resultsindicate that organic food intervention strategies can be supportive for strategies that increase thehealthiness of school eating environments. This eventually might play a positive role in the effortsdone to counteract the development of obesity and overweight issues among the children in theseselected Danish schools.