Agrofood : fruit-snacks overcome the old snacks

The young prefer fresh fruit salad rather than sugar-free fruit- juice, they appreciate also dried apple and drinkable fruit yoghurt. Even if precise data about young people's consume are not known, the pilot project "frutta snack" is considered satisfying; this project is promoted by the Department of Health and human service and the Department of Education, involving sixty-thousand high school-students. Some vending- machines have been installed since last October in 22 schools in Bologna; they provide selected products, ready to eat. In the first months the "favourite" products for students seem to be: fruit salads (48,4%), dried slices of apples (12,6%),drinkable fruit yoghurt (10,9%), fresh slices of apples (10,6%) dried fruit (8,3%),fruit juice (4,7%) and sugar-free fruit soup (4,5%). In Bologna the first results of this experimentation were analysed at the fresh- food show. Its goal is to give young people the opportunity to consume fresh fruit rather than the usual snacks. It joints also the fight against obesity and overweight, two wide spreading phenomena in Italy. According to a study presented today in Bologna, Italian children turn out to be the most hit in Europe by advertising on snacks (during the so-called protected time, from 4 to 7 p.m. an advertisement every 5 minutes is broadcast, that is to say 33 thousand every year).
For this reason the good values of the Mediterranean diet are needed. Mainly composed by cereals vegetables, fruit, fish, extra-virgin olive oil, it is still considered the best food model. The danger of overweight and obesity, which favour "killer diseases", according to the promoters, is mainly due to bad food - styles. That is why children and young people should consume fruit, during breaks. Students will find special fridged vending machines providing different kinds of fruit: from fruit- salad to fruit- shake, from dried apples to fruit-juices.