Abstract
Objective
Approximately 40% of children bring a packed lunch to school. Little is known about
the quality of these lunches. This study examined the nutritional quality of packed
lunches compared with school lunches for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children
after the implementation of 2012–2013 National School Lunch Program standards.
Methods
The researchers collected observational data for packed and school lunches from 3
schools in rural Virginia for 5 consecutive school days and analyzed them for macro
and micro nutrients.
Results
Of the 1,314 observations collected; 42.8% were packed lunches (n = 562) and 57.2%
were school lunches (n = 752). Energy, fat, saturated fat, sugar, vitamin C, and iron
were significantly higher whereas protein, sodium, fiber, vitamin A, and calcium were
significantly lower for packed lunches than school lunches.
Conclusions and Implications
Packed lunches were of less nutritional quality than school lunches. Additional research
is needed to explore factors related to choosing packed over school lunches.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
July 30,
2014
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
