Do attitudes, intentions and actions of school food coordinators regarding public organic food procurement policy improve the eating environment at school? Results from the iPOPY study

Objective: The present study investigates whether public organic food procurement policies have the potential to induce changes in the school food service environment. Design: A comparative cross-national survey was conducted in public primary and/or secondary schools in Finland, Germany and Italy. The school food coordinators completed a web-based questionnaire on their attitudes, intentions and actions towards organic school food provision. Setting: In Germany, 122 out of 2050 schools in the state of Hesse responded. In Finland, 250 out of 998 schools across the country responded. In Italy, 215 out of 940 schools from eight provinces responded. Subjects: School food coordinators in the sample of schools in the three countries. Results: The German and Finnish school food coordinators separately most agreed with the promotion of healthy eating habits (P < 0.001) and organic food (P<0.001) by schools. The Finnish schools were most likely to adopt a food and nutrition policy (P<0. 001), a health-promoting school policy according to WHO principles (P<0.001), to have a playground (P<0.001), to involve physical activity themes in teaching (P=0.012) and to have a canteen (P<0.001). The Italian schools were most likely to involve the food and nutrition policy in pedagogical activities (P=0.004), to serve nutritional school meals (P<0.001) and to recommend children to eat healthily (P<0.001). In the three countries, the non-organic schools were less likely to adopt a food and nutrition policy (P<0.001), a WHO health- promoting policy (P<0.001) and have a canteen (P=0.017) than the organic schools. Conclusions: The study suggests that there is a gap in the effects of public organic food procurement policy on building a healthier school food environment.