Eurozone deficit – in fruit and veg

Various governments say we should eat five portions of fruit and vegetables each day for our health. But do we ?

The European Food Information Council recently published a review finding that most of us don’t.

The World Health Organisation target is 400 grams.

Just four countries surveyed have mean consumption above the target – virtuous Poland on 577 grams, followed by Italy on 452, Germany on 442 and Austria on 413.

Hungary and Belgium squeeze past when fruit juice is included. The rest of us fall short, though some countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece were not covered by the research.

Others lagging up to 25% behind were Estonia, Ireland, France, Denmark and the Netherlands. Up to 50% below were Slovakia, Bulgaria, Norway, the United Kingdom, Finland, the Czech Republic and Sweden. Iceland was bottom, the only country with consumption below 200 grams.

Another instance of must do better.