THE USE OF FISH IN BRAZILIAN SCHOOL LUNCHES: A REVIEW

Abstract

The inclusion of fish in children's diets can help combat chronic degenerative diseases, in addition to modifying eating habits and promoting healthy eating. Thus, the objective of this study was to review the state of the art of research that evaluated the inclusion of fish in school lunches in Brazil, identifying the species used, methods of preparation, advances and challenges. The study is a narrative review of the literature, where the searches took place in the Scielo and Scopus databases, in addition to the Google Scholar tool. Inclusion criteria were articles, books, dissertations and theses, electronically available in full, free of charge, whose research evaluated the use of fish in school meals in Brazil, in Portuguese, English and Spanish. The publication period was not inserted as a selection criterion. Articles repeated in more than one database were excluded, as well as monographs. The results showed that the studies consisted of assessing the acceptability of fish offered in different ways, in addition to experience reports where a playful methodology was used to promote fish consumption among schoolchildren. The fish species used in the studies were Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus); carp (Cyprinus carpio); pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus); anchovy (Engraulis anchoita); pirarucu  (Arapaima gigas); curimatã (Prochilodus nigricans). The ways of preparing the fish offered to the students were soup and smoked fish broth; sauce, meatballs and fishburgers.  The students appreciated the use of fish in school lunches, however, further work in this context should be carried out, above all, with native fish species and with different fish processing technologies.