Sources of Intrusions in Children's Dietary Recalls from a Validation Study of Order Prompts

Validation-study data and foodservice production records were analyzed to test hypotheses concerning sources of intrusions (reports of uneaten items) in the school-meal parts of children's dietary recalls. Each child was observed eating school meals on two days, and interviewed the morning after each observation day; one interview used forward-order (morning-to-evening) and one used reverse-order (evening-to-morning) prompts. Lunch intrusions were likelier to have been available in the foodservice environment at lunch as day before the interview came closer, and on days before than after the interview. Temporal dating errors are contributing sources of intrusions in the school-lunch parts of children's recalls.