This study used the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) and Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to identify parental factors that are associated with increasing their child’s fruit and vegetable consumption. The information gathered enabled a behavioural diagnosis and the identification of intervention functions to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in children.

A qualitative design using open-ended online survey methodology was utilised.

United Kingdom.

Twenty-eight parents of primary school-aged children (4–11 years) aged 29–51 years participated.

Thematic and summative analysis identified skills in preparation and cooking, awareness of and desire to increase fruit and vegetable intake, knowledge of the recommendations and better health for their child as the main facilitators. The main barriers were time and financial constraints, their child’s food preferences and refusal to eat fruit and vegetables, negative role modelling from parents and grandparents and beliefs that fruit and vegetable intake will increase with age. For behaviour change to occur, ‘knowledge’, ‘social influences’, ‘environmental context and resources’, ‘beliefs about consequences’ and ‘beliefs about capabilities’ need to be altered.

Novel findings suggest that future intervention development should focus on parental beliefs and skills around how to increase fruit and vegetable consumption as their child ages and expanding parental knowledge on the benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption such as mental and future health. The use of the TDF and BCW identified appropriate intervention functions that will guide future behaviour change techniques, modes of delivery and policy categories that best target increasing children’s fruit and vegetable consumption.

This study aimed to examine the theoretical potential of meal kit subscription services in Australia to promote parental food literacy using the retrospective application of behaviour change frameworks.

A one-week subscription was purchased for all Australian-based meal kit subscription services (n 9) to access content and features available to subscribers. Behaviour change techniques (BCTs) identified in the subscription and meal planning features, meal kit delivery (i.e. ingredients and recipes) and website were coded using the behaviour change technique taxonomy (BCTTv1) and associated behaviour change frameworks. Identified BCTs were mapped to the theoretical domains framework to identify potential mechanisms of action for influencing parental food literacy development.

Australia.

Thirty-five BCTs were identified across the nine meal kit services reviewed, ranging from nineteen to twenty-nine BCTs per company. Sixteen BCTs were common to all meal kits services, from the hierarchical clusters of ‘goals and planning’, ‘shaping knowledge’, ‘social support’, ‘natural consequences’, ‘comparison of behaviour’, ‘repetitions and substitution’, ‘associations’, ‘reward and threat’, ‘antecedents’ and ‘regulation’. Across the meal kit services, the most frequently identified mechanisms of action were motivation (n 27) and capability (n 19).

These findings support the applicability of behaviour change frameworks to commercial meal kit subscription services and provide a theory-informed process for identifying BCTs that may be relevant for promoting parental food literacy within this context. Further research is required to explore how families engage with meal kit subscription services to determine the exposure and delivery of identified BCT content and to evaluate the potential influence on food literacy development.