Abstract
Australians’ vegetable intakes are low, and strategies are needed for improvement. Popular convenience cooking products (meal bases and recipe bases, ready-made marinades, and convenience cooking sauces) address common cooking and vegetable consumption barriers (cost, time, and cooking skills). However, relationships between their usage and vegetable intakes have not been established. Therefore, Australian adults were surveyed on convenience cooking product use, vegetable intake and variety, behaviours when barriers to vegetable inclusion arise, and vegetable choice factors. Of 842 participants, 36.7% used meal and recipe bases, 28.1% marinades, and 47.2% cooking sauces, with most following the back-of-pack recipes at least sometimes. A total of 12.5% of participants used products from all three categories. Factors associated with lower vegetable intakes were meal and recipe base and cooking sauce use, using a higher number of product categories, and always following back-of-pack recipes. Factors associated with lower vegetable variety were the use of meal and recipe bases and cooking sauces. Factors in vegetable choice, and behaviours when not including a listed vegetable (due to not having or liking the vegetable, or an inability to eat it) did not vary by usage habits. These results provide insights into current vegetable intakes of those using convenience products, providing a baseline for future changes in the product design and recommendations.
Highlights
It is well established that diets regularly containing a high level and variety of vegetables are beneficial to overall health, reducing risks for diet-related chronic diseases [1,2,3]
This study is the first to investigate the relationships between usage habit key examples of convenience cooking products, and vegetable consumption habits
It appears that the use of these products, both in binary terms and in terms of using a higher number of convenience cooking product categories, was associated with lower vegetable intakes
Summary
It is well established that diets regularly containing a high level and variety of vegetables are beneficial to overall health, reducing risks for diet-related chronic diseases [1,2,3]. There is an array of barriers that can contribute to low and limited vegetable intake [9]. These include a lack of availability, time, and access, as well as burdens of cost and taste preference [10,11,12,13]. Vegetables often require preparation or cooking prior to consumption, and so cooking skills and confidence may present an additional barrier for vegetables compared to other healthy food groups such as fruits [15,16]. Low levels of cooking skills can leave individuals vulnerable to messages of how the products can be easier to prepare, and how they may taste [11], rather than messages regarding the nutritional quality or vegetable contents of these products. Convenience foods and ready-to-eat meals prepared out of the home are typically calorie-dense compared to home cooking, which is associated with healthier dietary choices, and higher intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains [17,18]
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