Comparison of food menu among government-funded childcare centers in the US, Sweden, and korea

Background: The scope of government interventions on childcare vary greatly from the universal public childcare in Sweden, public childcare provision for low-income families in US, to the mostly private market-based childcare in Korea. To compare food environments across nations in public childcare, we conducted a case study in Korea, Sweden, and US. Methods: 1) two-weeks of food menu (lunch and snack) 2) food expenditure (cost per child) and 3) food service system were collected from conveniently sampled public childcare centers from high- and low-income areas in each nation (2 sites per nation). Results: US used a catering service while Korea and Sweden have their own kitchen. The three nations portrayed slight differences among macronutrient and energy content in which, Sweden, both low- and high-income, was found to provide the largest calories per day (777 and 894 kcal). High-income childcare center in Korea was found to have the low calories (596 kcal) followed by US (606 kcal) and Korea low-income (678 kcal). Korean childcare centers were found to have the lowest fruit intake and the highest vegetable intake. Overall, with the exception of vitamin D and E, the nutrient content of the menu for each country were sufficient in meeting one-third of the US RDA. Conclusions: The findings have limited interpretations because of a convenient sampling; however, all nations meet the recommended level of energy, macronutrients, and most micronutrients with a potential for overfeeding. This study demonstrated feasibility to conduct an international comparison study. (National Research Foundation of Korea Grant(NRF-2011-330-B00190)