Call for ban on junk foods in school dinners

Experts’ warning on obesity threat

EXPERTS have demanded a crackdown on school meals – warning that popular children’s foods are fuelling Scotland’s obesity epidemic.

Lunchtime favourites such as ham, chicken nuggets, haggis and pizza should be reduced or scrapped from menus entirely, they say.

Puddings should be ‘minimised’, with soups and salads served instead, it was claimed.

After surveying primary school meals across the country, the obesity experts said menus offer up to almost double a child’s recommended daily sugar intake, while many serve too much processed meat.

The Obesity Action Scotland report warns: ‘The presence of hot dogs, chicken nuggets, burgers, chips and pizza infers they are acceptable on a daily basis and exposes children to the habit of consuming these types of food.’

The group – made up of doctors and public health experts – calls on schools to ‘immediately’ stop offering either a soup or pudding to children at lunchtimes, and prioritise salads and soups. It also wants the dinner hall experience to be vastly improved, with shorter queues, comfortable seats, proper plates and cutlery to make eating ‘a pleasure’.

Two-thirds of primary pupils in Scotland eat school meals and 28 per cent of youngsters are overweight or obese.

The experts surveyed primary school menus across 30 local authorities in Scotland over a ‘random’ week. The study found 26 local authorities were serving ham or turkey slices, 23 served chips and 22 provided pizza.

It said vegetables, pulses and unprocessed meat, poultry and fish should be favoured while ‘junk’ food or red and processed meat should be reduced or scrapped from school menus.

Offering children puddings at school makes it ‘almost impossible’ for them to keep to their daily sugar limits because the average school pudding contains more than 14g of sugar, compared to the daily limit of 19-30g depending on the age of the child, said the experts.

They highlighted one menu – sweet and sour chicken, lemon sponge and a strawberry milkshake – which came to almost double a child’s recommended maximum daily sugar intake.

Lorraine Tulloch, programme lead of Obesity Action Scotland, said: ‘The diet of Scottish children is generally poor and failing to meet dietary goals.

‘School meals provide the opportunity to turn this poor diet around and have a positive influence on the health of children growing up in Scotland.

‘School age children are consuming three times the recommended level of sugar. Cakes, cookies, sweetened yogurts and other desserts in school meals could be significantly contributing to this excess intake.’

Last night, a Scottish Government spokesman said school meal standards were being reviewed.

He added: ‘All local authorities have a duty to provide school meals that meet strict nutritional requirements, ensuring that pupils are offered balanced and nutritious school lunches.’

‘Diet of children is generally poor’