Comunicaciones e-póster

https://doi.org/10.37527/2021.71.S1

PO 295. ACCEPTABILITY OF SCHOOL MEALS IN AN INTERVENTION STUDY INVOLVING CHANGES IN SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT AND THE USE OF GASTRONOMIC TECHNIQUES

Rafael Lavourinha Pinto1, Bárbara da Silva Nalin de Souza2, Mara Lima De Cnop De Cnop3, Rosely Sichieri1, Diana Barbosa Cunha1.

1Department of Epidemiology, Social Medicine Institute, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2Department of Collective Health, Collective Health Institute, Federal University of Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Brazil, 3Gastronomy course, Institute of Nutrition Josué de Castro, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil


Background and objective. More than 45 million Brazilian students benefit from the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) on a daily basis. However, meals acceptability is still low. This study aimed at assessing the acceptability of school meals in schools from Sumidouro-RJ, Brazil, participating in a multicomponent intervention.

Methods. This study is part of a randomized multicomponent community trial with students from 4th to 9th grade in 3 public schools. control school-CS (without intervention); intervention school 1-IE1 (changes in school environment) and intervention school 2-IE2 (changes in school environment and addition of new dishes on their menus, respecting local food habits and PNAE requirements). The environmental changes were based on the principles of choices architecture and self-service system implementation. Sixty-one new dishes created by gastronomy professionals were included in the IE2 school menu. Acceptability tests were applied using hedonic scale, proposed by PNAE, and ANOVA variance analysis were developed to compare the average acceptability data by meal group for every school.

Results. It has been observed a greater acceptability of rice, fruits and juice groups in IE1 (94.2%, 66.7% e 67.1%) and IE2 (93.4%, 76.7% e 80.5%), when compared to CS (82.0%, 42.9% e 32.1%). Beans group acceptability was higher in IE1 (80.6%), when compared to CS (63.2%). There has also been observed that the fish group was more accepted in IE1 (64.2%), when compared to IE2 (43.5%) and to sweets and vegetables in IE2 (75.4% and 53.5%), in comparison to CS (41.4% and 38.9%).

Conclusion. The acceptability of meals served to students from the intervention group that promoted environmental changes and included new dishes to the menu was higher than the ones observed at the control school.

Keywords: acceptability, school meals, students, food habits, public politics.