Public settings

• In 2008, the Scottish government issued guidelines to increase access to competitively priced fruit and vegetables through retail outlets in hospital settings.

Targeted subsidies

• The Healthy Start program provides pregnant women and/or families with children under the age of four, who are receiving income support/jobseekers allowance or child tax credits, with weekly vouchers to spend on foods including fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables.

• The EU fruit, vegetable and milk scheme provides fruit, vegetables and milk to children in schools.  The scheme provides financing through the EU's Common Agricultural Policy to help promote the benefits of healthy eating to children and encourage them to increase their consumption of fruit, vegetables and milk (DG AGRI).

• In Norway, the government provide subsidized fruit or vegetables in primary schools. Parents also participate to the costs through the payment of a subscription.

School food policies

• Many EU member states school food policies state specific amounts of fruit and vegetable that should be provided at lunch time.  As an example, the Austrian school food policy recommends, that a minimum of 10 pieces of fruit (at least 3 different types) are on display in every break.

• The Flanders school food policy emphasizes that in vending machines, a balanced selection of drinks (including water, milk, and fruit juices) and snacks (including fruit, high-fibre biscuits, and dairy) should be available. Healthier options should be promoted through lower price or more access points.

Increase availability

• Vending machines containing drinks and snacks are not allowed in schools. Fruit and bottled water must be made available.

• The Change4Life Convenience Stores program is a partnership between the Department of Health in England and the Association of Convenience Stores to increase the in-store availability of fresh fruit and vegetables.

• Food-based dietary guidelines typically promote consumption of fruits and vegetables (Food-based dietary guidelines page).

• National campaigns can promote the consumption of a certain number of portions of fruit and vegetable a day, often '5 a day' (e.g. Germany, Spain) but also '6 a day' (Denmark), or 5-10 (France).

• The French Nutriscore front-of-pack labelling scheme encourages consumption of fibre (along with proteins and fruits and vegetables), and assigns a 'positive point' score which depends on the level of fruit, vegetables and nuts content per 100g of food product ( Santé publique France 2017 ).
• Indicatively, no positive points are given for fruit, vegetable and nut content ≤40g/100g of product while 5 positive points are given for fruit, vegetable and nut content of 80g/100g of product.

• All television advertising (targeted at children or adults) for processed food and drinks, or food and drinks containing added fats, sweeteners and/or salt, must be accompanied by messages approved  by the National Institute of Health Education. One of the messages is 'For your health, eat at least five fruits and vegetables a day'.

• The European Health Interview Survey (Eurostat 2016 (pdf)) collects data relative to frequency of fruit and vegetables consumption in adults.  Data are part of ECHI (European Core Health Indicators) (DG Health and Food Safety) and have been recently reported by EUROSTAT (Eurostat 2016 (pdf)) in the 2015 edition of Health at a glance (OECD 2015).
• The 2016 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study ( WHO 2016b ) reports how often children (aged 11, 13 and 15 years) consume fruit and vegetables including EU countries, Norway and Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
• National food consumption surveys provide food and nutrient intake measurements (including fruit and vegetables intake) The EFSA Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database ( EFSA database ) gathers intake data from many EU member countries.