Development and application of the Meal and Snack Assessment (MESA) quality scale for children and adolescents using item response theory

Table 3 Top five foods per eating occasion by MESA Scale levels in three years of WebCAAFE research

Daily meal	Ranking	Healthy		Mixed		Unhealthy
Daily meal	Ranking	Food	%	Food	%	Food	%
Breakfast	1	Bread	53	Bread	46	Bread	41
	2	Coffee with milk	46	Coffee with milk	30	Chocolate milk	35
	3	Milk	14	Chocolate milk	16	Cream cookies	15
	4	Fruit	11	Cream cookies, Milk	14	Yogurt	11
	5	Plain cake	7	Fruit	12	Breakfast cereal	10
Morning Snack	1	Fruit	18	Bread	20	Bread	13
	2	Bread	10	Fruit	16	Cream cookies	12
	3	Coffee with milk	6	Yogurt	12	Yogurt	10
	4	Yogurt, Plain cake, Porridge	4	Cream cookies	11	Fruit	6
	5	Milk	3	Chocolate milk, Fruit juices, Coffee with milk	8	Chocolate milk, Fruit juices	5
Lunch	1	Rice	59	Rice	56	Rice	56
	2	Beans	48	Beans	45	Beef/poultry	47
	3	Beef/poultry	43	Beef/poultry	43	Beans	41
	4	Green leaves, Vegetables, Pasta	13	Sodas, Fruit juices	16	Sodas	22
	5	Cassava flour	12	Green leaves	15	Fruit juices	16
Afternoon Snack	1	Bread	30	Bread	26	Bread	28
	2	Fruit	19	Fruit	16	Cream cookies	18
	3	Coffee with milk	18	Cream cookies	14	Chocolate milk	16
	4	Plain cake	11	Plain cake, Coffee with milk	13	Yogurt	13
	5	Cream cookies	6	Yogurt	12	Fruit juices	10
Dinner	1	Rice	36	Rice	34	Rice	33
	2	Beans	26	Beans	27	Beef/poultry	25
	3	Pasta, Vegetable soup	10	Beef/poultry	26	Beans	23
	4	Green leaves	8	Sodas	15	Sodas	19
	5	Vegetables, Cassava flour	7	Fruit juices	14	Fruit juices	15
Evening Snack	1	Fruit	12	Fruit	13	Sweets	12
	2	Bread	7	Fruit juices	9	Chocolate milk, Sodas	10
	3	Milk	6	Sweets, Sodas, Cream cookies	8	Fruit juices	8
	4	Coffee with milk	5	Chocolate milk, Bread, Yogurt, Plain cake	7	Bread, Yogurt	7
	5	Plain cake, Rice, Beans	4	Milk	6	Pizza/hamburger/hot dogs	6

WebCAAFE Food Intake and Physical Activities of Schoolchildren, MESA Meal and Snack Assessment Quality Scale

ISSN: 1475-2891