Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2009, 6 1277 Table 4. Cont. I'm/parents are sufficiently informed about my/their child's food and physical activity learning activities I'm satisfied about the food items available at school 41 26 a Not satisfied = those who did not agree = completely disagree, disagree and no opinion; b Separate analyses for each variable: reference categories: those who did not agree. 69 72 3.12 (2.25-4.34) 7.21 (5.03-10.35) 4. Discussion The purpose of the present paper was to investigate what preschool children‟s parents and teachers think about the school food policy in Flemish nursery schools. In international literature, only two studies on parents‟ and teachers‟ opinions about school food policy have been found: a qualitative study on parents, teachers, and school board members of Thai preschool children [18] and a quantitative study on parents and teachers of middle school students in the St-Paul-Minneapolis (MN, USA) metropolitan area [19]. In Victoria (Australia) lay people‟s view of children‟s food policies was investigated in a random sample of the population [20]. The present study is the first on this topic in a European country. In agreement with previous findings [18,19,21], parents consider school food policy in general as important; moreover, they like to be informed about what happens at school and what their children consume. In general, parents and teachers agree that there should be a school policy restricting the consumption of snacks and soft drinks at school and in most schools, these foods are not allowed or only occasionally allowed. Fathers are slightly more permissive, especially regarding the soft drink consumption, which might be explained by the lower health consciousness of men [22,23]. Only about one-third of the parents in our study did agree, however, to restrict the beverages to natural milk, water and soup, indicating that a considerable number would like to have/keep fruit juice and/or sugared milk beverages on the school‟s beverages lists. On the one hand, these are an important source of vitamins and minerals [24], particularly for children, on the other hand there is evidence of an association between the consumption of sugared drinks (including some evidence for fruit juice) and obesity [25]. Our school questionnaire shows that fruit is not systematically available in Flemish nursery schools (58% not or less than once a week, 40% once a week); nevertheless, our findings indicate that most parents (79%) would consider availability of fruit at school as and advantage. Teachers are a little less keen on the availability of fruit at school. They possibly think more about the practical consequences of adopting such a policy: e.g., one has to manage to keep the fruit fresh, fruit often has to be peeled, and young children can easily make a mess of it. Moreover, teachers might feel that schools are not responsible for children‟s fruit and vegetable intake [26]. Nonetheless, 59% still agree that availability of fruit at school is an important plus point. Evidence in primary schools suggest that availability of fruit at school by subscription can increase consumption [27-29], although it must be said that availability of free fruit at school is more effective than subscribed schemes [30]. In Flanders (Belgium), the Tutti Fruttie project (http://www.fruit-op-school.be/) aims at increasing the