Food literacy education at senior secondary school could provide immediate health benefits to adolescents. In the long term, this will help strengthen the relationship between citizens and the food system. The aim of this paper is to explore food system professionals’ opinions of the importance of senior secondary school food literacy education. A purposive sample of 34 food system professionals from different sub-sectors within the Australian food system were interviewed individually in late 2015 and early 2016. Interviews were analysed using the template analysis technique. Many participants indicated that food literacy education helps students establish healthier eating patterns. Some participants suggested that food literacy education helps students join in food-related career pathways and some believed that this education helps students understand and question the food system and related issues. Moreover, some participants mentioned that the senior secondary school years are when it is most appropriate to deliver some of the broad aspects of food literacy, while some pointed out the importance of starting food literacy education in primary school. Furthermore, participants indicated the importance of food literacy education in school, referring to low food and nutrition knowledge and skills among modern consumers and inadequate family support for students to develop healthier food patterns. In conclusion, senior secondary school food literacy education helps students develop healthy eating patterns, and prepare them to make wise decisions in relation to food. This highlights the importance of provision of comprehensive food literacy education for senior secondary school students.

Food literacy education at senior secondary school can provide both immediate and long-term benefits for adolescents. The exploration of multiple stakeholder groups’ opinions regarding the importance, roles, and challenges of school food literacy education, and their suggestions for its improvement, will help the design and execution of future food literacy-related curricula and programmes. This study explored a broad range of Australian and international food, health, and education professionals’ opinions regarding senior secondary school food literacy education through an online survey. One hundred and fifty-five food, health, and education professionals completed this survey between April and October 2017. Overall, the respondents strongly supported the need for food literacy education for senior secondary school students. Their suggestions for improving this form of education included: incorporation of relevant and up-to-date content, the presence of strong practical components, offering food literacy as compulsory subjects or the incorporation of food literacy concepts into compulsory core subjects. Moreover, they proposed the active contribution of both internal and external stakeholders in the planning and delivery of this education to upgrade its quality and relevance. Overall, the findings suggest that a wide range of food, health, and education professionals are highly supportive of senior secondary school food literacy education and their constructive suggestions should be considered in school food literacy education enhancement efforts. Education authorities should seek ways of involving different stakeholders, including food-related professionals, in the design and delivery of food literacy education, and future studies should explore the best mechanisms for such involvement.

Purpose: Implementation of a new food literacy curriculum provides multiple health and social benefits to school students. The success of any new curriculum execution is partly determined by teachers’ perceptions about the new curriculum contents, and barriers and challenges for its delivery. The purpose of this paper is to explore teachers’ views of a new food literacy curriculum named Victorian Certificate of Education Food Studies for senior secondary school students in Victoria, Australia.Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative study design was used in this study. In total, 14 teachers who were planning to teach the new curriculum were individually interviewed in October-December 2016. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using the template analysis technique.Findings: The majority of teachers appreciated the inclusion of food literacy and nutrition concepts in the new curriculum. However, half of the teachers had doubts about their readiness to teach it. Most teachers mentioned that they needed more training and resources to increase their confidence in teaching the curriculum.Practical implications: These findings reveal that teachers need more awareness, resources, and guidance to increase their confidence in delivering the new curriculum. Provision of more resources and opportunities for training in food literacy concepts and instructional methods could facilitate its implementation.Originality/value: These findings serve as an important first step to gain the perspectives of secondary school teachers’ opinions about the new curriculum. Moreover, these opinions and suggestions could inform the future design and implementation of similar food literacy curricula in Australia or elsewhere.

Issue Addressed: This paper aims to explore Victoria parents' perceptions of their current practices and barriers in providing school lunches for their primary school children.Methods: Respondents were asked via an online survey about their lunch provision practices, perceptions of the healthiness of school lunches, and barriers to providing healthy school lunches. Data were analysed using different statistical techniques: Chi‐square test, Spearman correlation analysis, Mann–Whitney U test, and Kruskal–Wallis test.Results: In total, 359 respondents completed the survey. Most respondents (84%) reported their child takes a home‐packed lunch to school every day. Most respondents provided fruits (94%), vegetables (57%), and sandwiches (54%) every day for school lunches, whilst other core food items such as milk, meats, and legumes were provided less frequently. A substantial proportion of respondents provided some discretionary food items frequently (e.g., the proportion of respondents providing selected discretionary food items daily or 3–4 times/week: salty crackers—50%, sweet cookies/biscuits—40%, chips—20%). Respondents strongly agreed or agreed with several barriers; examples include not packing certain foods due to food spoilage concerns (50%) (school‐related), the allocated time at their child's school is not enough to eat and enjoy school lunch (48%) (school‐related), need more meal ideas (61%) (parent‐related), healthy foods take more time to prepare (51%) (parent‐related), and children request easy‐to‐eat food for school lunches (50%) (child‐related). Core food score (an indicator of frequency of preparing/packing core food) was negatively correlated with parent‐related and child‐related barrier scores, whilst discretionary food score (an indicator of frequency of preparing/packing discretionary food) was positively correlated with these barrier scores.Conclusions: Overall, home‐packed lunches remain the main option in primary schools in Victoria, and parents face several challenges in providing healthy lunches for their primary school children.So What?: The findings suggest the need for strategies from school leaders, education authorities, and policymakers to improve the quality of lunch content and address the barriers faced by parents.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the food system professionals’ opinions of a new senior secondary school food literacy curriculum named Victorian Certificate of Education Food Studies in Victoria, Australia. Design/methodology/approach: A purposive sample of 34 food system professionals from different sub-sectors within the Australian food system was interviewed individually in late 2015 and early 2016. Interviews were analysed using the template analysis technique. Findings: Most participants appreciated the extensive coverage of food literacy aspects in this new curriculum. However, many suggested amendments to the curriculum including pay less emphasis on food history-related topics and pay more focus on primary food production, nutrition awareness and promotion, and food security, food sovereignty, social justice, and food politics. Practical implications: A well-structured, comprehensive secondary school food literacy curriculum could play a crucial role in providing food literacy education for adolescents. This will help them to establish healthy food patterns and become responsible food citizens. The findings of this study can be used to modify the new curriculum to make it a more comprehensive, logical, and feasible curriculum. Moreover, these findings could be used to inform the design of new secondary school food literacy curricula in Australia and other countries. Originality/value: The exploration of perspectives of professionals from a broad range of food- and nutrition-related areas about school food literacy education makes this study unique. This study highlights the importance of food professionals’ opinions in secondary school food-related curricula development.