Food HabitsOPTIMAT-UNCT04312386
Fostering Healthy and Sustainable Diets Through School Meals (OPTIMAT Uppsala)
A study testing OPTIMAT in people with Food Habits, run by Karolinska Institutet at 1 site in Sweden.
Trial summary
School meals have considerable potential to shape children's diets and reduce the climate impact of meals. This study applies linear programming for developing and implementing a climate friendly, nutritious and affordable school lunch menu. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 6 to 16 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Food Habits
- What is being tested?
- OPTIMAT
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 2,000 participants
- Where
- 1 siteSweden
- Study dates
- 20 Jan 2020to 31 Dec 2021
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 6 to 16 years
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Child
Who may be able to join
- Primary schools (children between 6-16 years in school years 0-9)
- The schools needed to have on-site kitchens
- The schools needed to be able to provide previously used recipes for a standard four-week menu electronically
Who cannot join
- Preschools or gymnasiums
- Schools receiving catered food
- Schools that could not provide recipes electronically
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
About this study
Official title: Fostering Sustainable Dietary Habits Through Optimized School Meals - an Intervention Study in Uppsala, Sweden
School meals have considerable potential to shape children's diets and reduce the climate impact of meals. This study applies linear programming for developing and implementing a climate friendly, nutritious and affordable school lunch menu. The new menu plan will be compared to the baseline menu during a 4-week intervention trial. The outcomes will be food waste, consumption, and pupils' satisfaction with the meals before and after introducing the new meal plan analyzed by interrupted time series analysis. Our hypothesis is that school meals can be optimized to be nutritious and more climate friendly, without negatively affecting acceptance, food waste and cost.
Four primary schools in one Swedish municipality with the same menu plan for all schools will participate in the study. Their current meal supply will be recorded in the form of a food list including amount and cost of each item over a 4-week period. This list will then be optimized with linear programming to be as similar as possible to the baseline diet but with a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of about 30%. No new foods will be introduced and none will be removed from the list. Nutritionally adequacy will be ensured by including constraints into the model. The optimized food list will be handed to the municipality's meal planner and a new menu plan will be developed based on the revised food list. Data on food waste and consumption will be collected daily during a baseline period of four weeks, and during the four-week intervention period. School lunch satisfaction will be assessed twice with an online questionnaire at baseline and during the intervention.
Read the detailed description
For a period of four weeks, during the spring term of 2020, children from four primary schools in Uppsala municipality will receive a new school lunch menu plan which has been optimized through linear programming to be as similar as possible to the baseline menu while having about 30% lower greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), being nutritionally adequate, and not more expensive.
During the fall of 2019, a meeting was held with the public meal administration in the municipality of Uppsala. The research team described the OPTIMAT project, including the previously developed strategy for optimizing and implementing more climate friendly lunches in schools. Following this meeting, the municipality agreed to take part in the project. The municipality's meal planner proposed four primary schools for the study, presently having the highest food related GHGE in public meals in the municipality. To be eligible, the intervention schools were required to have on-site kitchens as well as being able to provide electronic recipes for a standard four-week menu. All proposed schools fulfilled these criteria and approved participation.
Recipes for an original (baseline) four-week school lunch menu plan previously served at the recruited schools were obtained through the municipality's electronic meal planning system. The foods included and amounts are considered as the baseline food supply. Each food item included has a code that can be coupled to the Swedish national food database and a national climate database for foods containing life cycle data for each food item. This baseline food supply will be optimized using linear programming. The optimized food list, not including new foods or excluding any foods from the baseline list, will be handed to the municipality's meal planner who develops a new menu plan for the intervention using all foods on the optimized list.
To assess the effect of the new menu plan, data on food waste and consumption will be collected daily in each intervention school four weeks before (baseline) as well as during the four-week intervention with a one-week brake between measurement periods. Kitchen staff will perform daily weighting (using school kitchen scales) of all food prepared in the kitchen (prepared food); the share of the prepared food that is not eaten and has to be thrown away (serving waste); the share that can be saved (leftover food); and plate waste. Total plate waste, plate waste per pupil, serving waste, total consumption, and consumption per pupil will be considered as the primary outcomes as they are regarded as directly related to the pupils' acceptability of the new menu. Data on school meal satisfaction will also be collected through an anonymous online questionnaire at baseline and during the last week of the intervention period. Pupils in grade 8 will answer the questionnaire containing ten questions related to the school lunch.
- Conditions
- Food Habits
- Being tested
- OPTIMAT
- Keywords
- Children, Public meals, Sustainable diets, Agenda 2030, Greenhouse gas emissions
- Medical subject headings
- Feeding Behavior
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
OPTIMATOther
Baseline menue, not optimized
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| A new 4-week lunch menu | Experimental | Optimized lunch menu with 30% lower greenhouse gas emissions, nutritionally adequate Receives: Other: OPTIMAT |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Change in plate waste between baseline and intervention periods measured with kitchen-scales
Plate waste, total per school and per pupil assessed with the School Food Sweden's consumption and waste measurement tool
Measured: During four weeks before the intervention period and during the four week intervention
Change in serving waste between baseline and intervention periods measured with kitchen-scales
Serving waste, total per school assessed with the School Food Sweden's consumption and waste measurement tool
Measured: During four weeks before the intervention period and during the four week intervention
Change in food consumption between baseline and intervention periods
Food consumption, total per school and per pupil assessed with the School Food Sweden's consumption and waste measurement tool
Measured: During four weeks before the intervention period and during the four week intervention
Change in school meal satisfaction between baseline and intervention periods
Pupils' rating of school meals with the School Food Sweden's student questionnaire (ten questions referring to the school lunch with good face validity and with a varying number of response options from always to never or number of times per week)
Measured: Once during the four weeks preceding the intervention as well as once during the last week of intervention
Secondary outcomes (3)
Change in prepared food between baseline and intervention periods measured with kitchen-scales
Prepared food, total per school assessed with the School Food Sweden's consumption and waste measurement tool
Measured: During four weeks before the intervention period and during the four week intervention
Change in leftover food between baseline and intervention periods
Leftover food, total per school assessed with the School Food Sweden's consumption and waste measurement tool
Measured: During four weeks before the intervention period and during the four week intervention
Change in number of lunch consumers between baseline and intervention periods
Number of lunch consumers, total per school
Measured: During four weeks before the intervention period and during the four week intervention
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted18 Mar 2020
- Study start20 Jan 2020
- Primary completion20 Aug 2020
- Study completion31 Dec 2021
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (1)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Food HabitsStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by Karolinska InstitutetThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Model description
- Four schools from one county Sweden meet inclusion criteria and are eligible to participate in the intervention. These schools will all serve the baseline menu followed by the new menu. Each period will last for four weeks.
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 2,000 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Karolinska Institutet
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS), Göteborg University
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Liselotte Schäfer Elinder, Karolinska Institutet
- Investigators
- Liselotte Schäfer Elinder, PhD, Principal investigator, Karolinsk InstitutetPatricia Eustachio Colombo, MMsc., Study chair, Karolinsk Institutet
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT04312386
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 2020-00353
- Acronym
- OPTIMAT-U
- Status last verified
- Jan 2022
- First submitted
- 21 Jan 2020
- Last updated
- 24 Jan 2022
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Publications
Eustachio Colombo P, Patterson E, Schafer Elinder L, Lindroos AK, Sonesson U, Darmon N, Parlesak A. Optimizing School Food Supply: Integrating Environmental, Health, Economic, and Cultural Dimensions of Diet Sustainability with Linear Programming. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Aug 21;16(17):3019. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16173019.
PubMed 31438517
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 24 Jan 2022. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Fostering Sustainable Dietary Habits Through Optimized School Meals - an Intervention Study in Uppsala, Sweden
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT04312386
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- OPTIMAT-U / 2020-00353
- Conditions
- Food Habits
- Keywords
- Children, Public meals, Sustainable diets, Agenda 2030, Greenhouse gas emissions
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 2,000 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- Karolinska InstitutetUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS), Göteborg University
- Study start
- 20 Jan 2020 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 20 Aug 2020 (actual)
- Study completion
- 31 Dec 2021 (actual)
- First posted
- 18 Mar 2020 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
School meals have considerable potential to shape children's diets and reduce the climate impact of meals. This study applies linear programming for developing and implementing a climate friendly, nutritious and affordable school lunch menu. The new menu plan will be compared to the baseline menu during a 4-week intervention trial. The outcomes will be food waste, consumption, and pupils' satisfaction with the meals before and after introducing the new meal plan analyzed by interrupted time series analysis. Our hypothesis is that school meals can be optimized to be nutritious and more climate friendly, without negatively affecting acceptance, food waste and cost.
Four primary schools in one Swedish municipality with the same menu plan for all schools will participate in the study. Their current meal supply will be recorded in the form of a food list including amount and cost of each item over a 4-week period. This list will then be optimized with linear programming to be as similar as possible to the baseline diet but with a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of about 30%. No new foods will be introduced and none will be removed from the list. Nutritionally adequacy will be ensured by including constraints into the model. The optimized food list will be handed to the municipality's meal planner and a new menu plan will be developed based on the revised food list. Data on food waste and consumption will be collected daily during a baseline period of four weeks, and during the four-week intervention period. School lunch satisfaction will be assessed twice with an online questionnaire at baseline and during the intervention.
Detailed description
For a period of four weeks, during the spring term of 2020, children from four primary schools in Uppsala municipality will receive a new school lunch menu plan which has been optimized through linear programming to be as similar as possible to the baseline menu while having about 30% lower greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), being nutritionally adequate, and not more expensive.
During the fall of 2019, a meeting was held with the public meal administration in the municipality of Uppsala. The research team described the OPTIMAT project, including the previously developed strategy for optimizing and implementing more climate friendly lunches in schools. Following this meeting, the municipality agreed to take part in the project. The municipality's meal planner proposed four primary schools for the study, presently having the highest food related GHGE in public meals in the municipality. To be eligible, the intervention schools were required to have on-site kitchens as well as being able to provide electronic recipes for a standard four-week menu. All proposed schools fulfilled these criteria and approved participation.
Recipes for an original (baseline) four-week school lunch menu plan previously served at the recruited schools were obtained through the municipality's electronic meal planning system. The foods included and amounts are considered as the baseline food supply. Each food item included has a code that can be coupled to the Swedish national food database and a national climate database for foods containing life cycle data for each food item. This baseline food supply will be optimized using linear programming. The optimized food list, not including new foods or excluding any foods from the baseline list, will be handed to the municipality's meal planner who develops a new menu plan for the intervention using all foods on the optimized list.
To assess the effect of the new menu plan, data on food waste and consumption will be collected daily in each intervention school four weeks before (baseline) as well as during the four-week intervention with a one-week brake between measurement periods. Kitchen staff will perform daily weighting (using school kitchen scales) of all food prepared in the kitchen (prepared food); the share of the prepared food that is not eaten and has to be thrown away (serving waste); the share that can be saved (leftover food); and plate waste. Total plate waste, plate waste per pupil, serving waste, total consumption, and consumption per pupil will be considered as the primary outcomes as they are regarded as directly related to the pupils' acceptability of the new menu. Data on school meal satisfaction will also be collected through an anonymous online questionnaire at baseline and during the last week of the intervention period. Pupils in grade 8 will answer the questionnaire containing ten questions related to the school lunch.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 1
- Model description
- Four schools from one county Sweden meet inclusion criteria and are eligible to participate in the intervention. These schools will all serve the baseline menu followed by the new menu. Each period will last for four weeks.
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| A new 4-week lunch menu | Experimental | Other: OPTIMATOptimized lunch menu with 30% lower greenhouse gas emissions, nutritionally adequate |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 6 to 16 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Child
Key inclusion criteria (3 listed)
- Primary schools (children between 6-16 years in school years 0-9)
- The schools needed to have on-site kitchens
- The schools needed to be able to provide previously used recipes for a standard four-week menu electronically
Key exclusion criteria (3 listed)
- Preschools or gymnasiums
- Schools receiving catered food
- Schools that could not provide recipes electronically
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| OPTIMATBaseline menue, not optimized | Other | A new 4-week lunch menu |
Primary outcome
Change in plate waste between baseline and intervention periods measured with kitchen-scales
Time frame: During four weeks before the intervention period and during the four week intervention
Plate waste, total per school and per pupil assessed with the School Food Sweden's consumption and waste measurement tool
Change in serving waste between baseline and intervention periods measured with kitchen-scales
Time frame: During four weeks before the intervention period and during the four week intervention
Serving waste, total per school assessed with the School Food Sweden's consumption and waste measurement tool
Change in food consumption between baseline and intervention periods
Time frame: During four weeks before the intervention period and during the four week intervention
Food consumption, total per school and per pupil assessed with the School Food Sweden's consumption and waste measurement tool
Change in school meal satisfaction between baseline and intervention periods
Time frame: Once during the four weeks preceding the intervention as well as once during the last week of intervention
Pupils' rating of school meals with the School Food Sweden's student questionnaire (ten questions referring to the school lunch with good face validity and with a varying number of response options from always to never or number of times per week)
3 secondary outcomes
Change in prepared food between baseline and intervention periods measured with kitchen-scales
Time frame: During four weeks before the intervention period and during the four week intervention
Change in leftover food between baseline and intervention periods
Time frame: During four weeks before the intervention period and during the four week intervention
Change in number of lunch consumers between baseline and intervention periods
Time frame: During four weeks before the intervention period and during the four week intervention
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 24 Jan 2022.
- Results publication: PubMed 31438517Eustachio Colombo P, Patterson E, Schafer Elinder L, Lindroos AK, Sonesson U, Darmon N, Parlesak A. Optimizing School Food Supply: Integrating Environmental, Health, Economic, and Cultural Dimensions of Diet Sustainability with Linear Programming. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Aug 21;16(17):3019. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16173019.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Liselotte Schäfer Elinder, PhD principal investigator
Karolinsk Institutet
Patricia Eustachio Colombo, MMsc. study chair
Karolinsk Institutet
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing OPTIMAT in people with Food Habits, run by Karolinska Institutet at 1 site in Sweden.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 3 inclusion and 3 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 24 Jan 2022. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in Sweden. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Change in plate waste between baseline and intervention periods measured with kitchen-scales (time frame: During four weeks before the intervention period and during the four week intervention). The study lists 4 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT04312386, which also lists 1 linked publication.
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 24 Jan 2022.