Schoolkids eating apples

A news release from Freshfel Europe has highlighted the fact that the European Commission may be planning to abandon the EU School Fruit Scheme (SFS), a programme that provides fruit and vegetables and promotes healthy eating habits to more than 8.6m children and more than 50,000 schools across Europe.

Ahead of an EC meeting with EU member states and stakeholders to discuss the scheme on 2 March, a coalition of twelve public health and fruit and vegetable organisations called on the Commission to prioritise child health when making cuts to EU’s initiatives under its so-called ‘Better Regulation’ plans.

The Commission is considering suspending the scheme as it sees it as an obstacle to achieve its better regulation and CAP simplification goals. Yet, Freshfel said the cost of the scheme is minimal – 0.25 per cent of the EU agricultural budget (from €90m-€150m) and it has only been in place for five years.

There are 22m overweight children in the EU of which 5.1m are obese - an EU-wide trend which is set to make another 1.2m children overweight and 300,000 obese each year.

'This scheme has already proved to be a remarkable instrument to help children discover taste, texture and diversity of fruit and vegetables while contributing to tackle the growing problem of obesity,” pointed out Philippe Binard, general delegate of Freshfel Europe. “The SFS also supports the agricultural sector, a key industry for the EU’s jobs, as it promotes the consumption of its products and connect suppliers to schools in their neighbourhood.'

OECD and WHO analysis show that the consumption of fruit and vegetables has fallen since the economic crisis, as households tend to replace healthy food by cheaper processed and calorie-dense foodstuffs.

Educating the youngest is a key starting point to reverse the trends contributing to the obesity epidemic and rising numbers of people suffering preventable chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.

“The EU SFS is a very cost-effective investment in public health,' said Dorota Sienkiewicz, health equity and policy coherence coordinator at the European Public Health Alliance. 'It will protect the future health of today’s children as they grow up and in the long run pay itself back many times over in savings to Europe’s economies and health systems which are already feeling the strain of unhealthy eating and shrinking budgets.'