Foods containing the lunchboxes of the preschool child of educational institutions; Alimentos que contienen los refrigerios de preescolares de instituciones educativas

Abstract

Introduction: The school snacks reflect children's eating habits and preferences. An unhealthy snack is considered a public health problem. Objective: Identify the types of foods that contain the preschool snacks of public educational institutions. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 167 snacks of preschool children from four educational institutions in the northern region of Peru, applying as an instrument a checklist of energy foods, water, regulators and builders, and according to their origin in processed and unprocessed (natural). Categorical data were recorded and presented as frequencies and percentages. Results: Of the 668 foods observed, 95.8 % presented energy foods followed by 82.6 % water. The foods of the preschool children's snacks were 45.2 % unprocessed followed by 29.6 % who had no food of any kind. Conclusions: There is high consumption of energy foods in preschools in Chiclayo and there is a similarity between the frequencies of processed and unprocessed, however, in general, snacks have a high presence of unprocessed foods. © 2022 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.