Nutrition plays a crucial role in child and adolescent development. Establishing good nutritional habits early in life, particularly regular consumption of fruit and vegetables, can help prevent serious health problems such as obesity, diabetes and heart diseases. Various factors influence fruit and vegetable consumption among adolescents, including family income, parental dietary habits, and the availability of fresh products that can be affected by national or local climate conditions.
Despite the current recommendation to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day, over half (56%) of 15‑year‑old adolescents on average across EU countries ate neither fruit nor vegetables daily in 2022 (Figure 4.12). The proportion of young people reporting that they do not eat neither fruit nor vegetables each day increases between age 11 and 15 (Rakić et al., 2024[1]). In all EU countries except Malta and Latvia, 15‑year‑old boys were more likely than girls to report not eating any fruit or vegetables daily. This gender gap was particularly pronounced in Germany, Bulgaria and Slovenia. The proportion of 15‑year‑olds reporting no daily fruit or vegetable consumption has generally remained stable between 2018 and 2022.
Most EU countries have initiated campaigns to promote increased fruit and vegetable consumption among the general population, including young people, notably through “five a day” campaigns (e.g. in Germany, Spain, France) or even “six a day” in Denmark. Several countries have also implemented more targeted policies to promote greater fruit and vegetable consumption among children and adolescents, including health education in schools and increasing the fruit and vegetable content in school meals (OECD, 2019[2]).
At the EU level, a School Fruit Scheme, initially adopted in 2008 to promote fruit and vegetable consumption among school-aged children, was later expanded to include milk and other dairy products. In the 2021/22 academic year, over 17 million children in 134 000 schools across EU countries benefited from this scheme (European Commission, 2023[3]). An evaluation of the programme indicates that the scheme led to a short-term increase in the frequency and volume of fruit and vegetable consumption among school-aged children (Comino et al., 2022[4]).
Promoting better nutrition at a young age also involves reducing the consumption of products high in sugar, fat and salt. On average across EU countries, 14% of 15‑year‑olds reported drinking sugared soft drinks daily in 2022 (Figure 4.13). This proportion was highest in Bulgaria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Romania, France and Hungary, where more than one in four 15‑year‑olds reported consuming sugared soft drinks every day. Across all EU countries except Romania and Malta, a greater proportion of boys consumed sugared soft drinks daily (15% of boys compared to 12% of girls on average in EU countries).
The daily consumption of sugared soft drinks among 15‑year‑olds declined by about 2 percentage points on average across EU countries between 2018 and 2022. The most notable reductions of above 5 percentage points were observed in Malta, the Slovak Republic, France and Poland. In contrast, Estonia and Bulgaria experienced some increases, with other countries maintaining relatively stable rates.
Various policy actions can further improve the nutritional quality of beverages consumed by adolescents. These include product reformulation to reduce sugar levels, smaller portion sizes, front-of-pack labels promoting low-sugar drinks, taxes based on product sugar content and advertising restrictions for high-sugar products (OECD, 2019[2]). For example, Ireland’s introduction of a Sugar-Sweetened Drinks Tax (SSDT) in 2018 led to an estimated reduction in sugar intake from carbonated soft drinks from 5 kg per person in 2018 to less than 4 in 2022, suggesting the effectiveness of such fiscal measures in promoting healthier beverage choices (Houghton, Moran Stritch and Auerbach, 2024[5]).
