More organic fruit in the school fruit basket

With the start of the new school year, many schools have signed up for school fruit and vegetables. This year, the EU school fruit programme is giving extra attention to organic fruit. This as part of the European Green Deal to increase the share of organic in Europe.

School fruit is on the rise. After a dip due to the corona years, the number of children offered fruit and also vegetables at school is growing. Through the European Union's education programme alone, to help children develop a healthy diet, 18.3 million kilos of fruit and vegetables were eaten in schools in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and Finland* in the 2022/2023 school year. A growth of over 27% compared to the previous school year. Besides the EU programme, there are several other initiatives for fruit in schools.

New: organic school fruit for all

A new EU requirement for the 2024/2025 school fruit programme is that all schools in all countries receive a minimum of four organic products during school fruit weeks. A number of countries already structurally offer organic fruit and vegetables through the EU School Fruit Programme; in Austria, for example, over a third of the school fruit offered in the 2022/2023 school year was organic.

The shift towards more organic school fruit is part of wider efforts to promote healthier and more sustainable food choices in schools across the EU, in line with the Farm to Fork strategy aimed at increasing the impact of sustainable food consumption and education.

Grapes, apples and strawberries

Fruit crops are susceptible to diseases and pests, which is why synthetic pesticides are regularly used in conventional agriculture. Foodwatch's recent research [1 ] shows that popular school fruit such as strawberries, grapes, apples and tangerines often contain multiple residues, or 'cocktails' of pesticides. With an average of four to five different toxin residues, these are among the most contaminated fruits.

Although 96% of measured products contain pesticide levels within the legal limit (EFSA report of 2022 [2 ]), there are no rules for cocktails within current EU legislation. The presence of multiple residues are allowed within a sample, as long as each individual residue level does not exceed the established maximum residue limit (MRL) for each active substance. Grapes, strawberries, mandarins, pears and apples are among the fruits where a cocktail was most often found. Organic fruit is grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, fertilisers or genetic modification. So with organic school fruit, children get fruit as nature intended.

A choice for the future

The European Green Deal is the momentum to grow the share of organic fruit in school fruit. By choosing organic fruit, schools are investing in the health of their pupils and in a sustainable world. It is a choice in line with the growing awareness around healthy and sustainable eating. Moreover, it offers pupils the chance to get acquainted with the taste and quality of pure products from an early age, which can positively influence their dietary patterns in the future.

Organic school fruit at Eosta

As a pioneer on the European market, Eosta has been offering organic fruit and vegetables since 1990. With a wide choice of school fruit. Think tangerines, apples, oranges, kiwi, grapes, mango (with Living Wage implementation for the warehouses), blueberries and avocado (including Fairtrade avocado, with Living Wage implementation for the warehouses). Along with the organic fruit, Eosta can offer various educational materials.

Together against waste

To inspire pupils to fight waste, schools participating in the EU School Fruit programme have been receiving two to a maximum of four weeks, one portion per week of quality class II products - products with a cosmetic defect - since the 2021 school year.

However, this cosmetic defect says nothing about the taste of a product. This will teach children that fruit and vegetables with bumps, crazy shapes and scratches are part of nature and are just as tasty and healthy as quality class I fruit and vegetables. So there is really no need to throw these away. In order to avoid waste and not leave growers with their class II products, Eosta also offers class II products in addition to the class I quality.

*In addition to these EU countries also participated in the EU School Fruit programme: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Italy. Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden.