Each year, the department of Barranquilla, Colombia, invests around 40 billion Colombian pesos (USD 12.2 million) in the School Feeding Programme (PAE) to feed 113 818 children and adolescents. This research estimated that including gastronomic techniques in just one menu of the PAE Barranquilla could prevent 99.7 tonnes of food waste, which represents around USD 159 000 per year (1.5 percent of the total budget). This food waste is partly due to students leaving the food that they do not find tasty on their plate.

These data are derived from a small-scale pilot intervention, with a before-and-after assessment design, carried out in an educational institution in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia, where the gastronomic quality of a school menu was improved through a reinforcement training provided by a professional chef to the PAE food handlers. In order to identify if there were differences before and after the intervention, a survey was applied to a sample of children aged 8 to 14 years, which resulted in an increase in acceptance (from 52 percent to 72 percent) and a decrease in food waste (87.6 grammes on average per child per day).