Background

School canteens play a central role in the school food environments and influence children’s nutritional status and eating habits. They are key settings for the promotion of-healthier and more sustainable dietary behaviors.

Methods

This systematic review examines impacts of school canteens on children’s nutrition and their eating behaviors, based on published evidence. The sanitary and nutritional quality of meals served in school canteens were also assessed. The literature search was performed in PubMed and ScienceDirect databases from inception to the search date. Retrieved hits underwent rigorous screening by two reviewers in order to identify relevant articles.

Results

In several countries, school canteens face challenges regarding nutritional and hygiene quality. Some canteens fail to meet sanitary standards, and meals are often nutritionally imbalanced with, high contents of saturated fat, sugar, and salt, and low in essential micronutrients. The impact of school canteens on the nutritional status of children is difficult to quantify but it is clear that the presence of nutrients such as saturated fatty acids, sugar and salt combined of micronutrients decreases the potential for children to have a nutritional status. Regarding children’s eating behavior, most studies underlined the fact that school canteens are key settings for the nutritional education of children toward healthier and sustainable behaviors.

Conclusions

Overall, the implementation of school canteen programs should take into consideration the necessity to provide good quality meals but also the opportunity to provide nutritional education and sustainability awareness to children as childhood habits-are more likely to persist into adulthood.