The children may not be the problem: evidence of acceptance and enjoyment of higher fibre breads from choice architecture studies in school breakfast clubs

Low fibre consumption is endemic in the United Kingdom (UK). Replacing refined staples with wholegrain starchy staples could increase fibre consumption. School food contributes to children's nutrition and establishes eating norms, presenting both a public health opportunity and challenge. It could be a policy lever to effect generational dietary change and influence health outcomes, and goal-strategic public sector procurement. However, this policy lever is under-exploited. Despite efforts by non-governmental organizations and individual schools, school food has not been conferred high value or status in national food policy and often does not provide children with a diet rich in healthy, high-fibre foods. In the H3 project, we trialled interventions to increase the fibre content of school breakfast, with particular focus on replacing white bread - a UK breakfast staple - with higher fibre breads. Here we review this work, providing insights from the food industry and children's perspectives. A key outcome was that child preferences were not a major barrier. When provided with higher fibre foods, children ate and enjoyed them. This suggests that simple food policy levers could significantly reduce the approximately 6 g average 'fibre gap' in UK school children's intake, for example by mandating that all bread served in schools be at least a 'source of fibre'. Larger scale trials should be conducted, ideally as part of universal school breakfast pilots. This article is part of the theme issue 'Transforming terrestrial food systems for human and planetary health'.

Citation

Wilkinson N., Tann E., Boyle N., Caton S., et al. (2025) The children may not be the problem: evidence of acceptance and enjoyment of higher fibre breads from choice architecture studies in school breakfast clubs Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences 380 (1935) 38020240151 http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0151

PubMed ID

40963358 (pubmed)

Additional Links

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2024.0151

Type

Journal article

Language

en

Description

© 2025 The Authors. Published by The Royal Society Publishing. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0151

ISSN

0962-8436

EISSN

1471-2970

Sponsors

N.W., E.T., N.B., S.C., F.C. and L.D. are funded by the UKRI-SPF ‘Transforming UK food system’ programme funded H3 project (grant no: BB/V004719/1). L.D. is the Co-Director of the Institute for Sustainable Food, University of Sheffield. Funding/support: L.D. is Co-Director of (and E.T. and NB are funded by) the Co-Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, supported by Research Ireland (RE 22/CC/11147), Northern Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the International Science Partnerships Fund (REF: BB/Y012909/1). We acknowledge the generous, invaluable donations and support of ABMauri and Jackson's of Yorkshire in providing products for school-based interventions. Much of the work would not have been possible without the dedication and generosity of Anna Longthorp (Anna’s Happy Kitchen Ltd) who travelled many miles to collect and deliver bread. Lucy Antal (Feedback Global) was the instigator of the Liverpool Breakfast programme supported by Jackson's of Yorkshire and crucial to the effective delivery of the initiative.

Collections

Faculty of Education, Health and Wellbeing