Introduction: The present study seeks to compare two case studies, characterised by different primary school food procurement models (local-organic vs organic) in relation to (i) the uneaten edible food served in primary school canteens and (ii) children’s refusal towards the vegetable side dish.
Methods: The investigations were performed in 4 primary schools for a total of 40 days of data collection. Excluding special diets, the uneaten served food was scraped from children’s plates according to 7 food categories (bread, starchy-based dish, protein based-dish, fruit, vegetables, dessert, other). Finally, a questionnaire reporting a 5-point Likert scale was used to assess vegetable preferences.
Results: With the exception of bread (p = 0.149), the local-organic procurement model has shown a significantly lower percentage of waste for most of the food categories compared to the organic model, whose proportions ranged from 11.8% to 55.5%. The starchy-based dish, the protein-based dish and fruit gave higher wastes per child in organic model, where a higher fraction of children (38%) compared to the local-organic model (18%) did not appreciate at all the vegetables.
