Photo audit, 2,400 lunches, 20 schools

Nutrition research poster example

A dietetics audit poster is read for two things: what the method could actually measure, and which component of the diet is missing. This A0 landscape board photographs 2,400 school lunches across 20 schools, scores each against a guideline, and reports vegetables as the component that fails everywhere.

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BU
What is in a school lunch box? A photo audit of 2,400 lunches across 20 schools
H. Quintero ¹, T. Balasubramaniam ¹, E. Fairhall ²
1 Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Barrowfield University · 2 Population Nutrition Unit, Northern District Health
ABSTRACT
What children bring from home is the largest part of what they eat at school, and it is rarely measured because measuring it usually means weighing food in a corridor. This audit photographed lunches instead. Every lunch in a sampled class was photographed at the start of the break, 120 lunches at each of 20 schools over one term, and each photograph was scored against a school lunch guideline by two coders working independently. Of the 2,400 lunches, 38 per cent carried a full vegetable serve, 56 per cent a fruit serve, 86 per cent a grain food and 59 per cent a protein food. Seventy one per cent carried at least one packaged snack. Vegetables were the weakest component at every school type and the gap between primary and secondary was widest there, at 42 per cent against 32.
INTRODUCTION
A lunch box audit has to be quick or it does not happen: a class has fifteen minutes and a researcher with scales has time for six children. A photograph takes four seconds, does not touch the food, and leaves a record that a second coder can check months later. What it cannot do is weigh a portion, which is why this audit scores serves against a guideline rather than reporting grams.
METHODS
Sampling. Twenty schools across one district, 10 primary, 7 secondary and 3 combined, each contributing 120 lunches from randomly selected classes over one school term.
Capture. One photograph of each opened lunch box on a marked tray at the start of the break, with a standard card in frame for scale, taken before any food was eaten or traded.
Coding. Two coders scored every photograph independently against a published school lunch guideline for four components, with disagreements settled by a third coder.
Agreement. Coder agreement across all 2,400 photographs was 0.90, calculated on the four component scores rather than on an overall pass or fail judgement.
Analysis. Results reported as the share of lunches meeting each component, by school type, with the school treated as the unit of clustering rather than the child.
2,400
lunches photographed
120 lunches at each of 20 schools, one term
20
schools audited
10 primary, 7 secondary and 3 combined campuses
38%
met the vegetable serve
905 of 2,400 lunches carried a full vegetable serve
71%
carried a packaged snack
1,704 of 2,400 lunches held at least one packaged item
Comb
Prim
Sec
VegetableFruitGrainProtein0255075100
Figure 1. Share of lunches carrying each component: Prim primary, Sec secondary, Comb combined campuses.
Source: 2,400 photographed lunches, 20 schools, one term.
RESULTS
Across all 2,400 lunches the four guideline components were met at these rates: vegetable 38 per cent, fruit 56 per cent, grain food 86 per cent and protein food 59 per cent. Only 21 per cent of lunches met all four. The vegetable serve is the component that separates the school types, at 42 per cent in primary, 40 in combined campuses and 32 in secondary, while grain foods sit above 84 per cent everywhere.
DISCUSSION
A grain food is in almost every box and a vegetable is in fewer than two in five, which tells a school where a message would do most good. The packaged snack figure needs care: 71 per cent counts any packaged item, including plain yoghurt or cut fruit. A photograph records what was sent, not what was eaten, so a box that met all four and came home untouched scores as a pass.
Key finding
Vegetables are the missing component at every school type, in 38 per cent of 2,400 lunches, against 86 per cent for grain foods.
905 of 2,400 lunches carried a full vegetable serve
Grain foods in 86 per cent, protein foods in 59 per cent
Only 21 per cent of lunches met all four components
Photographs record what was sent, not what was eaten
REFERENCES
1.Ngarimu, K. and Quintero, H. (2024) Photographic methods in school food audits. Journal of Public Health Nutrition Practice, 23(1), 44 to 69.
2.Delaney, F. (2025) Coder agreement in guideline scoring of packed lunches. Dietetic Measurement Reports, 9(3), 130 to 148.
3.Fairhall, E. (2026) Packaged items and what counts as a snack. Barrowfield Nutrition Working Paper 2026-04.

Block by block

What each block on the board is for, in the order a reader walks it.

Title band and three authors
The title asks the question a parent would ask and answers it with the sample: 2,400 lunches across 20 schools. Three authors sit over two affiliations.
The four number ribbon
Lunches photographed, schools audited, the share meeting the vegetable serve and the share carrying a packaged snack, each with its count underneath: 905 of 2,400 and 1,704 of 2,400.
Abstract
Why packed lunches are rarely measured, what the photo method replaces, the four component rates, and the finding that vegetables are weakest at every school type with the widest gap between primary and secondary.
Why photograph the box
The introduction block explains the trade the method makes: four seconds per lunch and a record a second coder can check, against the inability to weigh a portion.
Methods as a labelled protocol
Five labelled entries: the sampling across 20 schools, the capture protocol with a scale card, the independent double coding, the agreement figure of 0.90, and the decision to cluster by school rather than by child.
Figure 1, components by school type
Four guideline components on the axis, three school types as short labelled series with the key spelled out in the caption. Four categories and three short series names keep the legend clear of the tick labels.
Results and the guideline serves met
The four rates across all 2,400 lunches, the 21 per cent that met all four components, and the school type breakdown that the layout has no table block for, written into the results block instead.
Discussion, conclusions and references
Where a message would do most good, why the packaged snack figure needs care, the difference between what was sent and what was eaten, four checked points and three numbered references.

What makes this board work

The ribbon carries the whole audit

Four numbers across the width: 2,400 lunches, 20 schools, 38 per cent meeting the vegetable serve and 71 per cent carrying a packaged snack. Each has its denominator underneath, so a reader who stops for ten seconds still leaves with the denominators.

The method names what it cannot do

A photograph cannot weigh a portion, so the board scores serves against a guideline and says so in the introduction rather than implying grams. It also states that the audit records what was sent, not what was eaten.

One figure, four components, three school types

The chart puts the four guideline components on the axis and the three school types as series, which is what makes the vegetable gap between primary and secondary readable at 42 against 32 per cent. Short series labels keep the legend clear of the tick row.

Questions people ask

What goes on a nutrition research poster?

The question, how food was measured and what that method cannot capture, the sample in items and in sites, the rates with their denominators, the agreement between coders, and the limits. A dietary audit that does not state its measurement error is hard to read against any other study.

How do you report coder agreement on a poster?

Give the figure and say what it was calculated on. This board reports 0.90 across all 2,400 photographs on the four component scores rather than on an overall pass or fail, which is a harder test and a more useful number for anyone repeating the method.

Can I use a stacked column chart?

A figure block draws in the kind its design declares, and ten kinds exist across the forty designs, including stacked columns, area, radar and waffle. This design declares vertical bars, so the three school types are grouped bars with the key in the caption.

Landscape or portrait for a dietetics audit?

Landscape suits a board with a number ribbon and one wide figure, which is the shape of an audit. A0 landscape is 1189 by 841 millimetres from a 2340 by 1656 pixel canvas. Check the conference specification first, because many name one orientation and a maximum width.

What if the layout has no table block?

Write the table content into a section block, as this board does with the guideline serves met by school type. Only three of the forty poster designs carry a table block. Confirm the blocks on a design before you plan content that needs one.

Should percentages carry their counts?

Always, on a poster. Thirty eight per cent means little on its own and 905 of 2,400 lunches means something immediately. Every stat block on this board has room for the count in a detail line, which is what the line is for.

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