School Catering Services

The new requirements for School Lunches from Sept 06

We aim to provide children and young people high quality, enjoyable and creative choices of nutritious food and are working with Schools and Health Partners to improve well being and encourage healthier lifestyles.

New Food Measures

The Government is determined to transform the quality of food in schools across the country. In March last year the Secretary of State for Education and Skills announced a package of measures designed to significantly improve the quality of all school food.

The Government Schools Meal Review Panel issued a working document in September 2005 - "Turning the Tables, Transforming School Food and Drink", available from www.dfes.gov.uk . This included some 35 recommendations of which a good proportion of the recommendations are related to nutritional values.

Recommendations for new nutritional standards for school food, should be started as soon as possible or must be in place by September 2006. This should be followed by a two year development period 2006/08 for primary and a three year period for secondary schools, ending in 2009.

Following the recommendations, three years of transitional funding has been issued by the Government, £220m in total to support the implementation of the guidelines across the country to improve the quality and nutritional values of school meals. The School Meals Standard Fund (SMSF) is to be delivered through two new funding grants; grant 105A to the Council and 105B to schools.

The benefits of good school meals go beyond high quality catering. It has social, educational and economic advantages. Improving the standards of food may well contribute to improved behaviour and educational attainment.

Schools now have a responsibility to help children establish healthy eating patterns, learn about food and develop practical cooking skills.

Major Changes

The Government is setting new food based standards for school lunches. Below are summarised the key requirements:

• More fruit and vegetables - Not less than two servings per day per child; at least one should be vegetables or salad and at least one should be fruit.
• More oily fish - Oily fish such as mackerel or salmon should be served at least once every three weeks.
• Bread - bread should be available at lunch every day.
• Drinking water - Free, fresh drinking water should be available at all times.
• Healthier Drinks - The only drinks served should be water, pure fruit juices, milks, yogurt and milk drinks with less than 5% added sugar, smoothies, low calorie hot chocolate, coffee and tea.
• No Confectionary - Confectionary such as chocolate bars, chocolate-coated biscuits and sweets should not be available.
• No Savoury Snacks - Only nuts and seeds with no added salt, sugar or fat are allowed.
• No Salt - Salt should not be available. Condiments, such as ketchup and mayonnaise should only be available in sachets.
• Deep fried foods restricted - Meals should not contain more than two deep-fried foods, such as chips and batter coated products, in a single week.
• Manufactured meat products restricted - These products, such as chicken nuggets, burgers etc., may only be served occasionally, and only providing they meet the standards for minimum meat content and do not contain any prohibited offal.

Our Response

Solihull has been at the forefront nationally in the drive to improve the quality and nutritional standards of School Catering for over 15 years. Before these new Government targets we were already commited to:

• Offering 2 servings of fruit and vegetables each day in our standard meals.
• Offering oily fish at least once every 3 weeks.
• Making drinking water available at all times.
• Restricting deep fried foods in the menu cycle.
• Limiting the use of manufactured products by fresh production on site each day.

We are therefore well ahead of the new targets and are now working with schools to make further adjustments needed well before 2009.

Links:

• www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/healthyliving
• www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk
• www.foodinschools.org
• www.wiredforhealth.gov.uk
• www.eatwell.gov.uk
• www.parentscentre.gov.uk