Abstract
A survey of the actual lunchboxes of preschool children was conducted among the parents of kindergarteners to consider their problems and issues. The obtained results are as follows.:
1. Approximately one-third of the preschool childrens' lunchboxes could be referred to as “pretty much homemade”.
2. In preparing the lunchboxes, many of the parents gave special consideration to their children's favorite foods, color arrangement, easy edibilty, nutritional balance, etc, but few thought about food safety.
3. 62.5 percent of the parents appropriately replied that the lunchbox contents account for approximately one-third of the total energy for one day.
4. Rice was mostly used as the staple food in the lunchboxes, though only a few used plain white rice while many others used flavored boiled rice or rice balls.
5. An average of 5.6 side dishes were included in the lunchboxes.
6. An overlap in dishes prepared using oil was seen, together with the frequent use of meat, whereas the use of fish and vegetables was rather low, which was an issue.
7. Furthermore, expanding the child raising assistance project by incorporating food supporting programs is desired.
