The article under discussion in this commentary addresses a critical aspect of childhood nutrition, providing evidence that consistently offering healthy lunches in schools leads to increased consumption of healthy food among children, without triggering unhealthy compensation at home. The study also found that once the program ended, the consumption of healthy food decreased while the consumption of unhealthy food increased.
This commentary aims to expand on the finding that the continuous provision of healthy lunch is necessary for children to have healthy meals in school settings, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the study and the transformative potential of promoting healthy food options in school settings through strategically designed public food procurement contracts. By incorporating nutritional criteria into public food procurement tenders, national, regional or local authorities have a unique opportunity to enhance child nutrition. However, to maximize the impact of such policies, it is essential that these criteria are comprehensive, specific, and supported by clear implementation guidelines - a standard that is currently not met in many European countries. This commentary will also briefly discuss the nutritional criteria for sustainable public food procurement recently developed by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, which aims to promote healthy and sustainable food options in European public settings, and includes specific nutritional criteria for children. Moreover, to inform policy decisions, more research is needed to assess the effectiveness of incorporating nutritional criteria into public food procurement processes in improving school and other public sector diets.
In summary, this commentary aims to stimulate discussion and inform policy decisions on the importance of integrating comprehensive and easy to implement nutritional criteria into public food procurement policies, with a view of creating a healthier and more sustainable food environment for future generations.
PEREZ CORNAGO Aurora;
PIERNAS Carmen;
2026-05-07
BMC
JRC145309
1741-7015 (online),
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-026-04708-z,
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC145309,
10.1186/s12916-026-04708-z (online),
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