Scoping Review of Culinary Interventions in Schools: Mapping Practices to Promote Food Education and Equity

School-based culinary interventions promote healthy eating, but evidence on their implementation and educational contributions remains fragmented. This study mapped culinary practice interventions as food education strategies for children and adolescents in schools.

Following Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines, we conducted a scoping review of studies involving school-aged participants in culinary interventions. Searches were conducted in October 2024 across PubMed, ERIC, Virtual Health Library, Medline, Scopus, and grey literature without date restrictions. Study selection, data extraction, and intervention classification were performed independently by two reviewers.

Fifty-five studies met the inclusion criteria. All were conducted in high-income countries and were predominantly quantitative (n = 43; 78.2%). Interventions mainly targeted elementary students (n = 47; 85.5%), were often integrated into curricula (n = 26; 47.3%), and emphasized attitudinal and psychosocial outcomes (n = 48; 87.3%). Teachers were the main facilitators (n = 45; 81.8%), while only three studies (5.5%) involved multidisciplinary teams including Education, Gastronomy, and Nutrition professionals.

Future interventions should address broader equity factors, engage multidisciplinary teams, and broaden food education.

School-based culinary interventions support comprehensive food and nutrition education, but greater attention to equity and multidisciplinary collaboration is needed.