Childhood and adolescence are crucial periods in the development of eating habits. Because schools are both places of learning and environments where meals are eaten, this makes them the ideal setting for taking action. Following on from World Health Day, Aprifel has taken a look at a recent review highlighting the potential of school-based interventions to encourage the formation of healthy and sustainable eating habits. This study identified the key determinants of success and made recommendations for designing future integrated interventions that encompass every aspect of sustainability and a long-term view.
Nutritionally poor diets are a major public health issue. They are directly linked to a range of conditions, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer. Besides this, their consequences also weigh heavily on our societies and the environment. Promoting healthy and sustainable eating habits is therefore a major priority.
To achieve this, childhood and adolescence are seen as pivotal periods, and schools as key settings for taking action. This is because children take a significant share of their meals while immersed in a structured educational environment (Yu BY et al., 2020; Omidvar D et al., 2023). School-based interventions can therefore address both the nutritional quality of food and awareness of sustainability issues, which will have an overall impact on long-term health.
However, despite this opportunity, few literature reviews have adopted an integrated approach to these issues (Schinde S et al., 2023; Omidvar et al., 2023; Brennan et al., 2021; Conti MV et al., 2024). Moreover, existing research is generally limited to the short-term impacts of interventions without considering their longer-term consequences, cost-effectiveness or integration into public policy.
In order to provide broader insights on this topic, a recent review (Hong & Cho, 2025) examined the available studies.
Healthy eating at school: several types of intervention have positive effects
This study identified several types of effective interventions in schools. These include those based on behavioural economics that make use of “nudge” mechanisms to encourage fruit and vegetable consumption while reducing food waste. Interventions that modified the types of food on offer also have a major impact. For example, providing free fruit helps to increase intake. Similarly, offering plant-based menus is linked to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions – while maintaining nutritional adequacy.
Moreover, digital tools appear to be promising strategies for adolescents. Mobile apps and games foster healthy eating behaviours and user engagement. Lastly, practical activities such as gardening or cooking workshops help to improve knowledge, attitudes and willingness to try new foods.
The authors highlighted the impact of several interventions:
- an 18–27% increase in fruit intake thanks to free distribution
- a 17% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions thanks to plant-based menus
- a 32–54% increase in vegetable consumption achieved through interventions combining lessons and actions in school cafeterias, and involving the whole school community.
Multi-component interventions: a key driver of effectiveness in promoting healthy eating in schools
Among all the interventions analysed, certain factors seem to contribute to the observed effects having more impact or being longer-lasting:
- combining several themes and courses of action (Prescott MP et al., 2019; Kluczkovski et al., 2022; Goldberg JP et al., 2009; Braga BC et al., 2024);
- developing interventions jointly with the various stakeholders: children, teachers and other staff within the educational community (Eustachio Colombo et al., 2021; Goldberg JP et al., 2009; Deavin N. et al., 2018);
- early targeting of children from a very young age (Goldberg JP et al., 2009; Johansson et al., 2021).
Moreover, the authors emphasised that the sustainability of dietary habits is a growing priority in interventions. Seven of them included it from the perspective of tackling food waste or greenhouse gas emissions, or of plant-based menus.
Proposals for improving school-based interventions and promoting better overall health
Among the recommendations emanating from this study, the authors stressed the importance of addressing public health and sustainability issues simultaneously through multi-component interventions. This review thus highlighted the link between school food initiatives and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, since these measures contribute to four of the goals:
- “Zero hunger”,
- “Good health and well-being”,
- “Quality education”,
- “Responsible consumption and production”.
The authors also called for future interventions to take the form of longitudinal studies involving repeated measurements of behavioural changes. This would enable the long-term effects of the interventions to be analysed, as this is not currently the case. Other possible improvements recommended by the authors were to include more economic analyses, particularly in terms of cost and accessibility, to improve the standardisation of environmental impact indicators, and to combine quantitative and qualitative approaches.
Lastly, they emphasised the importance of prioritising systemic whole-school approaches, supported by appropriate public policies, and taking greater account of their cultural, social and religious acceptability.
Based on: Hong JY, Cho J. Comprehensive Review of School-Based Interventions to Improve Food Quality, Nutrition, and Sustainability in Educational Settings. J.Sutain.Dev.Indic. 2025; 1(3): 2020618.
