Introduction:

The school snacks reflect children's eating habits and preferences. An unhealthy snack is considered a public health problem.

Objective:

Identify the types of foods that contain the preschool snacks of public educational institutions.

Methods:

A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 167 snacks of preschool children from four educational institutions in the northern region of Peru, applying as an instrument a checklist of energy foods, water, regulators and builders, and according to their origin in processed and unprocessed (natural). Categorical data were recorded and presented as frequencies and percentages.

Results:

Of the 668 foods observed, 95.8 % presented energy foods followed by 82.6 % water. The foods of the preschool children's snacks were 45.2 % unprocessed followed by 29.6 % who had no food of any kind.

Conclusions:

There is high consumption of energy foods in preschools in Chiclayo and there is a similarity between the frequencies of processed and unprocessed, however, in general, snacks have a high presence of unprocessed foods.

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