A Kitchen-Based Validation of the Food Skills Component of a Food Literacy Questionnaire in New Zealand Children

Abstract

Background: Food literacy is a recently developed concept which has emerged as a means to combat the rise in obesity and diet-related disease. Its purpose is to arm the public with a wide range of skills, knowledge and behaviours which are crucial to safely navigate today’s food environment. In 2015, a questionnaire was developed to measure the food literacy of New Zealand children, consisting of three components: food origins, food and nutrition knowledge and food skills. Of these three components, food skills are a practical skill which can be empirically validated, making it possible to ascertain whether the food literacy questionnaire accurately measures children’s food skills.

Aim: To validate the food skills section of an online food literacy questionnaire, by comparing results from the food skills section of the food literacy questionnaire to practical food skills measured in a kitchen environment.

Methods: A sample of 30 Year 6 children from two Dunedin schools were recruited. The participants initially completed the online food literacy questionnaire during school time, which was followed by participating in an hour-long food skills session one week later. The food skills sessions involved participants completing six ‘stations’ which assessed a range of food skills. These stations included: making a mini pizza, peeling and chopping a carrot, choosing the three main ingredients used in spaghetti bolognese, identifying foods that require cooking before consumption, boiling pasta until it is cooked, adjusting and following a pikelet recipe, and making porridge from an individual sachet by following the packet instructions. The results from the food skills sessions were then compared to the children’s results from the food skills section of the food literacy questionnaire.

Results: The mean score from the food skills section of the food literacy questionnaire was 77%, and the mean score from the food skills session was 78%. The overall correlation between the food skills section of the food literacy questionnaire and the food skills session was 0.82 (p-value <0.001), indicating a high correlation. When participant scores were split into tertiles, 70% of participants were correctly classified in the lower tertile, and 60% in the higher tertile; only 10% of participants were grossly misclassified.

Conclusion: The food skills section of the food literacy questionnaire is a valid measure of food literacy in Year 6 New Zealand children. It can correctly measure children’s food skills, as shown by an overall correlation of 0.82. The methodology of this research could be a useful tool for measuring children’s food skills in possible future food skills interventions and adopted to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions.