Table 3.

Daily food group servings, as assessed at the centre level using the menu assessment tool, and provided to and consumed by 2- to 4-year-old children at baseline (n 216) and follow-up (n 221), as assessed by the plate wastage method, among twenty long day care centres implementing the Start Right – Eat Right nutrition award scheme, metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, 2012

		Menu assessment tool					Servings provided					Servings consumed
		Baseline		Follow-up			Baseline		Follow-up			Baseline		Follow-up
Food group	Target	Median	IQR	Median	IQR	P value*	Median	IQR	Median	IQR	P value	Median	IQR	Median	IQR	P value†
Grains	2	2·8	2·1–3·1	2·3	2·1–2·8	0·14	0·9	0·4–1·4	1·3	0·8–2·0	<0·001	0·6	0·3–1·1	1·0	0·5–1·6	<0·001
Vegetables	1	1·0	0·6–1·2	1·4	1·1–1·8	<0·001	0·7	0·1–1·1	0·8	0·4–1·3	0·009	0·4	0·0–0·9	0·5	0·0–1·0	0·08
Fruit	0·5	0·7	0·6–0·9	0·8	0·6–0·8	0·41	0·6	0·4–1·0	1·1	0·7–1·5	<0·001	0·3	0·2–0·6	0·7	0·4–1·2	<0·001
Dairy	2	2·0	1·8–2·5	2·5	2·1–3·0	0·15	0·5	0·1–0·9	0·7	0·5–1·1	<0·001	0·4	0·0–0·6	0·6	0·3–1·0	<0·001
Meat and alternatives	1	0·8	0·6–0·9	1·1	1·0–1·3	0·001	0·3	0·0–0·6	0·5	0·1–0·7	<0·001	0·1	0·0–0·5	0·3	0·0–0·6	<0·001
Fats and oils	1·5	1·1	0·7–1·5	1·0	1·0–1·3	0·60	0·1	0·0–0·3	0·0	0·0–0·2	<0·001	0·1	0·0–0·2	0·0	0·0–0·1	<0·001
Discretionary foods‡		N/A		N/A		N/A	0·0	0·0–0·3	0·0	0·0–0·0	<0·001	0·0	0·0–0·3	0·0	0·0–0·0	<0·001

IQR, interquartile range.

^*Centre-level data were analysed using non-parametric t test for paired data (n 18 as data were missing from two centres at baseline).

^†Data were analysed using non-parametric t test for independent data.

^‡Discretionary foods include cake, pikelets, cream, gravy, jam, vegemite, jelly. These foods are not assessed as part of the menu assessment tool.