FoodStep - a Sustainable Model for Food Services and Early Childhood Education and Care

Transformation towards a more climate-friendly and healthy sustainable diet will require major changes in the food system: increase in consumption of plant-based foods and only moderate consumption of animal-based foods. In the FoodStep -project, the investigators will develop a sustainable model for food system that reduces the climate impacts of the food system in early childhood education and care. The impact of the changes on children's nutrition, the climate impact of the diet, and the cost of food services will be assessed in a randomised controlled trial. In addition, the effects of the model on the knowledge and attitudes of decision-makers, experts in food service and early childhood education, and families are studied. Based on the project, the model can be applied nationally as part of Finland's climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy. Study aim to a sustainable food system reform through concrete guidelines, communication, and action initiatives.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Healthy
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: FoodStep - a sustainable health-promoting model for food services and early childhood education and care

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 116
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Finland
  • Helsinki, Finland, FI-00271
    • The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 3 years to 5 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Are attending a full time daycare

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention group; increasing provision of vegetables and sustainable fish in food offered in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and adjusting intake of meat and milk to reasonable levels to meet recommendations; advancing food education, reducing food waste and assessing the climate and financial impacts of the shift towards a more plant-based diet	Other: FoodStep - a sustainable health-promoting model for food services and early childhood education and care; The investigators create a sustainable food system model that reduces the climate impact of the food system in early childhood education and care. In practice, the investigators i) promote plant-rich recipes, sustainable food purchases and consumption through municipality food services, ii) renew food education, and iii) reduce food waste in early education and care. To ensure the feasibility and long-term commitment, the investigators bring together municipal stakeholders and key actors within the food system and education sectors to co-create the content of a sustainable food system intervention. The randomized controlled intervention will be carried out at 26 daycare centers within four municipalities in Finland. The impact of the changes at a food system level on children's dietary intake and nutritional status, costs of the whole food system, the climate impact of the menus and children's diets as well as food waste in the daycare centers will be examined.
No Intervention: Control group; Food supply and food education continue as usual.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in daycare diet of the children	The investigators assess the change in vegetable, red meat and milk supply at daycare measured with Food Frequency Questionnaire.	Before the intervention and 1 year after the intervention
Change in climate impact of Food System model at systemic level	The investigators assess the change in carbon footprint of daycare food supply.	Before the intervention and 1 year after the intervention
Change in food service cost of Food System model at systemic level	The investigators assess how the costs change at food services due to the food system intervention and how cost-effective is the food system intervention compared to the food system as usual. Data comes from accounting of food services and book keeping: time spent to different tasks in food services.	Before the intervention and 1 year after the intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Suvi Virtanen
• Collaborators: University of Helsinki; Natural Resources Institute Finland; Laurea University of Applied Sciences

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 29, 2021
• Primary Completion (Estimated): November 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): November 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 29, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 21, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): February 22, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 15, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 14, 2023
• Last Verified: September 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Microbiome; Children; Nutrition; Health; Sustainability; Health Economics; Cost-effectiveness analysis; Early childhood education; Food System; Climate neutrality; Food catering
• Other Study ID Numbers: THL/1646/6.00.00/2021

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No