Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Question 250: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her efforts to promote healthy eating amongst school children. [9163/07]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I recently launched a national healthy eating initiative known as the Food Dude Programme to encourage fruit and vegetable consumption among school children. Managed by An Bord Bia, it will, on completion, have been introduced to 600 schools over 3 years. The programme which was developed by the University of Wales, Bangor is based on positive role models (the Food Dudes characters), repeated tasting and rewards. Studies show that it can deliver long-lasting results across primary age range, regardless of gender, school size and socio-economic factors. It is designed to enable children enjoy healthy diets and to create a healthy eating culture within schools. The programme is funded on a fully Exchequer basis and an amount of €4 million is being provided for this purpose in 2007 and subject to evaluation further funding will be provided in the following years. EU State aid approval has been received for the programme.

The programme is an extension of a pilot Food Dude Programme which was launched in 2005 and is co-funded by my Department, the European Commission and Wholesale Produce Ireland. Now in its second year of operation, it will, on completion, have been introduced to 120 primary schools over 3 years. The results from the pilot programme have been very encouraging with children who have participated consuming more fruit and vegetables both at school and at home. The success of the pilot programme was recognized when it was awarded the International Best Practice Award from the World Health Organization in 2006.

Other measures taken by my Department include the Scientific Study on Children's Diet, which was co-funded by my Department and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) and was the first study to benchmark dietary intakes of a nationally representative sample of Irish children. The work was carried out by researchers in Trinity College, Dublin, and University College, Cork, who surveyed 600 children aged 5-12 years from primary schools throughout Ireland during 2003 and 2004. The researchers collected information on diet, physical activity and body measurements on each child in addition to lifestyle information for both the children and their parents.

In relation to diet, the Scientific Study identified inadequate consumption of milk, fresh meat and fruit and vegetables among the young. Responding to this study and to the recommendation of the Obesity Task Force, last August I launched a new school milk scheme. The new revamped scheme has a broader range of milk products on offer including flavoured milk, low-fat and fortified options and with the improved packaging will I believe encourage more milk consumption among schoolchildren.