Background: Measures aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption were implemented in the 1990ies. Official recommendations were published in 1996. The objective of this paper is to describe fruit and vegetable intake before and after introduction of the official recommendation.
Material and methods: Data were obtained from Food Balance Sheets, household consumption surveys, the WHO's study "Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children" and market surveys. The development in fruit and vegetable consumption after 1996 is compared to that in previous years.
Results: Food supply and household consumption surveys show that fruit and vegetable consumption have increased the last 10 years. The increase after 1996 seems to be of the same relative magnitude as the years before. Pupils' fruit intake varied between 1993 and 2005, and vegetable intake increased between 1993 and 2005. The proportion of adults that had fruit or vegetables at least daily increased considerably between 1999 and 2005.
Interpretation: It is difficult to give an unambiguous answer as to whether there has been an accelerating increase in consumption after 1996, representing a trend break. A large proportion of the population were still not having fruit or vegetables daily in 2005. Increased efforts are necessary to reach the target of at least five portions of fruit and vegetables daily.