Menu pattern and food diversity of snack menus provided by Child Care Information Centers in Seoul

Abstract

Purpose: This study was conducted for analysis of menu pattern and food diversity of snack menus of child care centers in order to provide preliminary data for establishment of related guidelines for snack menus for child care centers. Methods: Data from 630 snack menus (350 for morning snacks and 280 for afternoon snacks) of March, 2013 from 14 Child Care Information Centers in Seoul provided for child care centers were analyzed. In addition, the menu pattern and food diversity of morning snack menus were compared with those of afternoon snack menus. Results: Differences in menu pattern and food diversity were observed between morning and afternoon snack menus. The majority of snack menus (66.8%) included two menu items and the numbers of menu items of afternoon snack menus were significantly larger than those of morning snack menus. The percentages of “Grains (G)” and “Grains (G) + Milk (D)” patterns were higher in snack menu (G: 18.9%, G+D: 17.1%). Approximately one third of snack menus were composed of only one food group. In addition, 45.6 % of all snack menus comprised milk and only 23.0% included fruits. Conclusion: These results demonstrated the need for improvement in food composition and diversity of snack menus provided by Child Care Information Centers for child care centers. Therefore, to ensure children's intake of nutritionally balanced snacks, it will be necessary to establish more detailed guidelines for the menu pattern and food composition in snack menus for child care centers.