School lunch provides excellent opportunity for students to learn about balanced diet. To improve students' food acceptance and decrease aggregate plate waste in school lunch, 247 elementary students were surveyed for their food discard practices and reasons in the first place. Bitter gourd, eggplant, green pepper and cucumber, the top 4 discarded foods, were then selected as experimental items and modified cooking methods for each were created. Vegetable acceptance and aggregate plate waste were monitored in pretest (former cooking) and posttest (modified cooking) for each of the four vegetables. The ovecooked vegetable with odd flovor was the food most wasted among the children. Curry was the most liked taste while ginger the least. Modified food preparation successfully improved students' vegetable acceptance and decreased aggregate plate waste, but only for cucumber. Students in sixth grade showed higher green pepper acceptance than third grade. Thus, school lunch preparation plays a potential role in encouraging students' vegetable intake and requires further investigation.
School lunch provides excellent opportunity for students to learn about balanced diet. To improve students' food acceptance and decrease aggregate plate waste in school lunch, 247 elementary students were surveyed for their food discard practices and reasons in the first place. Bitter gourd, eggplant, green pepper and cucumber, the top 4 discarded foods, were then selected as experimental items and modified cooking methods for each were created. Vegetable acceptance and aggregate plate waste were monitored in pretest (former cooking) and posttest (modified cooking) for each of the four vegetables. The ovecooked vegetable with odd flovor was the food most wasted among the children. Curry was the most liked taste while ginger the least. Modified food preparation successfully improved students' vegetable acceptance and decreased aggregate plate waste, but only for cucumber. Students in sixth grade showed higher green pepper acceptance than third grade. Thus, school lunch preparation plays a potential role in encouraging students' vegetable intake and requires further investigation.