Optimisation of the National School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme

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The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme is a public health intervention providing free fruit to English children for the first three years of school. This scheme is important because some children have low intakes of fruit and vegetables which may increase their risk of developing cancer and cardiovascular disease later in life. We are looking at the effects of this scheme on the diet of children from across England and drawn from different ethnic backgrounds and living in different socio-economic areas. We are measuring childhood obesity and body stores of important vitamins. We already know the intake of fruit increases while children take part in the scheme but falls when they are no longer eligible for free fruit in year 3.We are therefore investigating whether an intervention to develop a continued programme of activities to support eating fruit and vegetables by children after the end of the scheme will stop this decline and maintain fruit and vegetable intake in older children.The intervention involves lessons for the classroom and practical activities to support growing, cooking and tasting food. Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in young children may have important impacts on long-term chronic disease incidence rates