Results from consecutive Australian Health Surveys show children are not consuming enough vegetables. In fact, only 1 in 20 (4.6%) children aged 2-17 years of age eat the recommended amount.
The $4 million, five-year national VegKIT project brought together science and industry with CSIRO, Flinders University and the National Nutrition Foundation (formerly Nutrition Australia Vic Division) working together to deliver an integrated approach to improving children’s vegetable intake by engaging with government, industry and the places where children learn and eat.
The objective of the project was to deliver a program of research and development activities to increase children’s vegetable related knowledge with the ultimate aim of increasing vegetable intake by more than half a serving per day for every child. With that goal in mind, there is potential to increase demand for vegetable produce by 19,000 tonnes per year if every child (aged from two to six) increased intake by half a serving or more per day.
Tools and resources created throughout the life of the VegKIT project are available for early childhood and education professionals, cooks, healthcare professionals and caregivers to access.
To read more about the VegKIT project and associated activities please visit the sections listed below:
Best practice guidelines Resource registry Vegetable Intake Strategic Alliance
Early years advice to foster a love of vegetables Initiatives for childcare centres
Supply chain initiatives Meet the VegKIT Leads
Activity 1: Best Practice Guidelines for Increasing Children's Vegetable Intake
Despite the wide range of initiatives, programs and research that aimed to increase children’s vegetable intake, there was no clear guidance on what strategies are likely to be successful.
A major component of the VegKIT project was to produce best practice guidelines which translate the latest scientific literature into strategies for implementation by different stakeholders. The best practice guidelines aim to create greater and more sustained increases in Australian children’s vegetable intake.
Activity 2: Resource Registry
The VegKIT resource registry is a searchable database of projects, resources and research that promote increasing vegetable intake in children. It is designed to be used by health professionals, educators, researchers, people working in community or public health to explore, plan, develop and evaluate existing or future initiatives.
All materials included in the registry have been reviewed for alignment with the best practice guidelines and evaluated for effectiveness by an independent expert panel.
Create an account to submit an initiative
Activity 3: Vegetable Intake Strategic Alliance
The Vegetable Intake Strategic Alliance (VISA) was a cross-sector collaborative working group, brought together by the mutual goal of increasing children’s vegetable intake.
This group included a wide range of stakeholders, representing the horticulture industry, State and Commonwealth departments, nutrition and health agencies, research organisations, retailers, early learning and parenting organisations and various nonâgovernment organisations.
Why a position statement?
Children’s vegetable intakes have stagnated far below recommendations[1]. Past efforts to increase intakes have been limited and not adopted at scale[2, 3]. In this position statement, the VISA provides a unified voice in the promotion of evidence-based best practice using a paradigm shift to improve vegetable intakes.
Who is this position statement for?
Stakeholders and ‘gatekeepers’ who influence children’s food & vegetable intake across community settings, including health, education, and sporting activities. This includes primary carers of children or parents and the provision of food through food service and the food system supply chain.
Activity 4: Early years advice to foster a love of vegetables
Research has identified that acceptance of vegetables is a key factor associated with children’s low intake.
However, advice on how to encourage acceptance of vegetables in the early years of life was lacking. One of the key activities of the VegKIT project was to identify opportunities to promote young children’s enjoyment and liking of vegetables. Using a robust scientific approach, VegKIT researchers reviewed current science and vegetable dietary advice to better understand the most effective strategies that influence children’s liking of vegetables, and identify opportunities to strengthen these with practical strategies.
A resulting set of vegetable feeding advice statements was produced for adoption according to 3 areas: Policy & Practice, Research and Industry.
Activity 5: Initiatives for childcare centres
Promotion of healthy eating in childcare settings can improve children’s overall healthy food intake, including an increased intake of vegetables, however, challenges include food waste, which could be reduced by enhancing children’s willingness to give vegetables a go.
How is VegKIT addressing it?
The VegKIT childcare study developed and tested an online package for childcare centres to increase children’s vegetable acceptance and intake.
This study tested initiatives that provide training and support for cooks, educators and teachers to:
- Support vegetable provision at meals and snacks
- Integrate lessons about vegetables into the curriculum
- Encourage children to taste and enjoy vegetables at mealtimes.
Activity 6: Supply chain initiatives
With the goal of increasing children’s vegetable intake, VegKIT mapped out two initiatives that involve the industry supply chain and early primary school settings:
- Part 1: Developing new vegetable products
- Part 2: Creating opportunities in schools to improve vegetable consumption - which involved collaboration with Healthy Kids Association and Perfection Fresh.
The diagram below shows how this activity was conducted.
Meet the VegKIT Leads
David Cox
BA (Hons), MSc, PhD
Project Leader of VegKIT and Activity Leader of the Vegetable Intake Strategic Alliance
Behavioural Nutritionist with more than thirty years’ experience in sensory and psychological drivers of food choice and acceptance. David has worked for CSIRO for 25 years, after previous employment at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Institute of Food Research in the UK. David was instrumental in strategic investment and implementation plans that resulted in the VegKIT project and led the project over five years. David is a member of the South Australian Public Health Council and the Fruit and Vegetable Consortium. He has published over 100 papers in scientific journals, four book chapters and has an H-index of 33.
Dr Astrid Poelman
Principal Research Consultant, Public Health & Wellbeing, CSIRO, Westmead. BSc (Nutr & Diet), MSc (Nutr), PhD, RNutr
Dr Astrid Poelman is a behavioural nutritionist in the Public Health and Wellbeing Group in CSIRO, and is based in Westmead, Sydney. Her research focuses on the interface of the person, their environment and the product to generate insights that support healthy eating behaviours. As part of this research, she develops behavioural interventions and educational resources for community settings. A specific area of interest is increasing children’s enjoyment and consumption of vegetables, with evidence-based interventions developed for classrooms, canteens, childcare and parents. Astrid is passionate about conducting translational research that makes a difference.
Astrid was responsible for leading a research activity to develop and evaluate an intervention for primary school canteens to increase children’s vegetable consumption, and also for the development of a product development model and novel vegetable-based product concepts for industry supply chain partners and growers. She also led the development of a curriculum resource for Early Years, Taste & Learn™ for Early Years, and was involved in the evaluation of an early years package of initiatives.
Gilly Hendrie
PhD, B Sc (Dietetics), B Sc (Human Movement – Hons)
Dr Gilly Hendrie is a Research Scientist within the CSIRO Human Health Program. Her expertise is in understanding dietary intake patterns and developing novel ways to improve our food choices. Gilly has designed many technology based interventions to change, support, and monitor dietary behaviour change for health and obesity.
Gilly led the team in the development of best practice guidelines. This process include a review of scientific literature, translation to best practice guidelines, and the development of tools and resources for a range of stakeholders that influence what children eat.
Amber Kelaart
Adv APD, Bachelor (Health Sciences/Nutrition & Dietetics), Masters (Health Services Management), Executive MBA (current)
Project Leader of VegKIT registry and website.
Amber Kelaart is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian (Adv APD) who is a passionate and dynamic leader with extensive experience in the healthcare, primary care and not for profit settings. Amber is committed to optimising person-centred outcomes by supporting the uptake of innovative, tailored and evidence-based initiatives. She has led numerous large-scale state government funded projects of varying complexity and is particularly skilled at problem solving, strategic planning, program evaluation and stakeholder engagement. Amber has extensive experiencing in providing multi-modal education solutions to a range of health professionals.
Professor Rebecca Golley
Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics and Deputy Director of the Caring Futures Institute at Flinders University
VegKIT lead for Flinders University and member of the Consortium Management Team.
Rebecca leads a program of applied research to inform, develop, test and disseminate public health initiatives to improve children’s diet quality, prevent obesity and support children’s growth, learning and development. Her research spans the life course and the range of settings where children and families live, eat, work, learn and play. Rebecca has a strong track record in behavioural nutrition, nutritional epidemiology, dietary assessment, intervention trials and evaluation research.
Claire Gardner
Claire Gardner is a qualified dietitian and Research Manager at Flinders University Caring Futures Institute, as part of a research program focusing on the early years.
Claire is passionate about supporting families and children to improve their diet quality and healthy growth and development. She has successfully worked with a diverse range of sectors across government, education, planning, agriculture, charity and not-for-profit on a number of state and national initiatives aimed at translating research and evidence-based strategies into lifestyle and behaviour change.
Claire led the review and development of early years advice for effective behavioural and sensory strategies to increase children liking and intake of vegetables, she also led interventions assessing the effectiveness of best practice initiatives for the long day care setting, and is a member of the Consortium Management Team.