Households Provided Free Produce Require Intensive Intervention to Increase Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Reduce Plate Waste: A Randomized Trial

BACKGROUND: Policies seek to both increase fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption and reduce wasted food, though few have investigated if subsidizing FV consumption leads to more waste. OBJECTIVES: We evaluate changes in FV intake, waste, and inventories after free provision of supplemental produce and delivery of a smart coaching intervention to reduce food waste and replace less nutritious foods with FV. METHODS: Adults from households in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, measured food intake and waste for ≥3 d before and after intervention. Households were randomized to an intensive intervention to reduce food waste and replace less nutritious foods with FV (n = 23) or to a control intervention (n = 23). Both received free FV and measured FV inventories before and after intervention. RESULTS: Among control participants, free FV provision led to no significant changes in FV intake (-0.07, P = 0.71) or diet quality measured by Healthy Eating Index (HEI, -1.93, P = 0.33) but did increase FV inventories (4.89 kg, P = 0.04) and the number (9.53 events/period, P < 0.001) and magnitude (100.5 g/event, P = 0.005) of FV waste events, whereas total caloric intake (-132.7 kcal/d, P = 0.04) decreased. After receiving free FV, and compared with controls, treatment participants increased FV intake (0.85 servings/d, P = 0.002) and frozen FV inventories (1.78 kg, P = 0.04). After intervention, treatment did not significantly differ from control in HEI (-2.77, P = 0.34), total caloric intake (147.8 kcal/d, P = 0.13), total FV inventories (-1.83 kg, P = 0.51), plate waste (-22.2 g/person/d, P = 0.09), or the number (-3.57, P = 0.24) or magnitude (-66.4, P = 0.11) of FV waste events. CONCLUSIONS: Providing free FVs without focused interventions to improve diet quality and reduce waste fails to increase FV intake and increases FV waste. Pairing interventions with free FV provision appears critical to translating program resources into improved FV intake, whereas efforts to substantially decrease FV waste require more intensive effort. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT05061888.