Campaigners are urging government to introduce free school meals for all children, following publication of a damning survey of kids’ packed lunches this week.
Research from the University of Leeds showed that only one per cent of children’s lunchboxes meet the nutritional standards which have been set for their classmates on school meals.
About half of all children in England take a packed lunch to school. In the first study of its kind, the Leeds research team, commissioned by the Food Standards Agency, found that 82 per cent of their lunchboxes contained foods high in saturated fat, salt and sugar - items such as crisps, sweets and biscuits. Only one in five packed lunches contained any vegetables or salad and about half included an item of fruit - yet in the overwhelming majority of cases, even these fell well below the standards demanded of school dinners.
The research was led by Charlotte Evans of the Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics, who said: “The lack of equivalent food standards for packed lunches gives cause for concern that they will continue to lag behind the nutritional quality of school meals.”
The Children’s Food Campaign said the findings were appalling. Campaign co-ordinator Jackie Schneider said: “A whole industry has grown up around producing foods for lunchboxes, which can contain high levels of salt fat or sugar… There is now an even stronger case for giving all children a free healthy school meal, which really will start to change our food culture.”
The Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) also believes there is more that the government could do. In a statement, it said: “While the department of health has achieved significant consumer awareness of 5 A DAY this has not translated into widespread adoption of a healthy diet and greater consumption of fresh produce, and FPC wants to see a greater focus on key consumer groups in the 5 A DAY action plan. FPC has been lobbying the UK government to expand the successful Schools Fruit and Vegetable Scheme, which has proved that it can increase consumption of fresh produce and establish healthy eating habits among young children.”
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