Free school fruit – sustained effect three years later

A total of 1950 (85%) 6th and 7th grade pupils from 38 Norwegian elementary schools participated in the project. Nine schools were selected as intervention schools and participated for free in the Norwegian School Fruit programme for a school year (October 2001 until June 2002). A baseline questionnaire survey was conducted in September 2001, and follow-up surveys were conducted in May 2002 and May 2005. FV intake was assessed by a written 24-h recall (reporting FV intake at school and FV intake all day), and by four food frequency questions (reporting usual FV intake). Data were analysed by a linear mixed model for repeated measures.The pupils in the free fruit group increased their FV intake compared to pupils in the control group as a result of the intervention. Some of the effect was sustained three years later. The estimated long-term effects for FV all day were 0.38 and 0.44 portion/day for boys and girls, respectively.The results show long-term effects of a free school fruit programme.Norwegian children consume less fruit and vegetables (FV) [1] and more added sugar [1,2] and saturated fat [1], than recommended. A number of intervention studies have demonstrated that it is possible to increase children's FV intake, even though effects have been small and the long-term persistence of such changes are unknown [3]. The more effective studies have been comprehensive multi-component interventions targeting several determinants. However, very few studies have been able to evaluate the effect of the separate components, and little is known about what mediate the effect observed. Studies of single intervention components, targeting specific strong determinants of intake, are largely missing. Recently, an extensive review of determinants of children's and adolescents' fruit and vegetable intake identified availability and accessibility among the strongest determinants [4], a finding also supported by Norwegian studies [5,6]. Thus, an intervention increasing the access