Abstract
Background: Most Australians do not meet vegetable intake recommendations. Vegetables are most often consumed in evening meals. However, they often require preparation and therefore cooking skills. Convenience cooking products such as meal bases/concentrates and ready-made sauces are increasingly common and popular and may help address the barriers to vegetable consumption in terms of cost and time. These products also typically provide recipes, which include vegetables, and as such, may help address the barriers of cooking skills, confidence, and creativity. However, the relationships between the use of these products, cooking confidence, and cooking creativity remain unknown. Methods: Australian adults were surveyed (snowball recruitment, n = 842) on their use of convenience cooking products (meal bases/recipe concentrates, simmer sauces, marinades, and other cooking sauces), cooking confidence (7 item scale) and creativity (6 item scale), and demographic information. Results: Overall, 63.2% of participants reported using convenience cooking products. Those using these products had lower mean cooking skills confidence and creativity scores than those who did not, in all product categories assessed. Among users, those who reported "always" following the recipes provided had lower mean cooking confidence and creativity scores than those who followed the recipes less regularly. Conclusions: Therefore, improving the vegetable content of recipes provided with these products may be a tool to increase vegetable intake by users with lower cooking skills (confidence and creativity). This may complement traditional approaches such as education in improving vegetable intake.
Highlights
In 2018, the Australian National Health Survey found that 95% of the Australian population did not consume the recommended five servings (~375 g) of vegetables per day [1]
This study is the first to examine the use of convenience cooking products, cooking confidence, and cooking creativity
Cooking confidence scores were low among users of all categories of convenience cooking products compared to non-users of the products
Summary
In 2018, the Australian National Health Survey found that 95% of the Australian population did not consume the recommended five servings (~375 g) of vegetables per day [1]. They often require preparation and cooking skills Convenience cooking products such as meal bases/concentrates and ready-made sauces are increasingly common and popular and may help address the barriers to vegetable consumption in terms of cost and time. These products typically provide recipes, which include vegetables, and as such, may help address the barriers of cooking skills, confidence, and creativity. Conclusions: improving the vegetable content of recipes provided with these products may be a tool to increase vegetable intake by users with lower cooking skills (confidence and creativity). This may complement traditional approaches such as education in improving vegetable intake
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