Ingredients Used in Menus for School Lunches during the Period of High Economic Growth in Japan —Using the Menus Provided in Hiroshima City—

<p>Objective: The physical status of children improved considerably during the period of high economic growth, but there has been no analysis of the change in the school lunches at that time, which is one of the factors of improvement. Therefore, we investigated school lunch menus to understand the characteristics of the ingredients used in school lunches during the period.</p><p>Methods: In March 2019, with the cooperation of the Hiroshima City Board of Education, we analyzed the lunch menus of elementary school for a total of 1,445 days from 1957–1966, except 1958. We created three age groups: the "introduction period (1957, 1959, 1960)", "maturity period (1961–1963)", and "transformation period (1964–1966)", and compared the ingredients of menus by each age group using the χ² test or Kruskal-Wallis test.</p><p>Results: According to the analysis of 1,445 menus, the number of dishes and ingredients was the highest during the "transformation period". There was a difference in the use of ingredients by age groups as well. Items such as pork, chicken, milk, mayonnaise etc. were increased and whale meat, potatoes, carrots, onions, and miso were decreased. Furthermore, there was a significant difference in the number of types of seasonings by age groups, which was higher in the "maturity period" and the "transformation period" than in the "introduction period".</p><p>Conclusions: During the period of high economic growth, the number of dishes and ingredients in school lunches were changed. The use of whale meat was decreased, while the use of pork, and chicken was increased, and the number of seasonings was also increased.</p>