Schools returning to ‘beige days’ of unhealthy food, warns Oliver

SCHOOLS that ditched Turkey Twizzlers more than 15 years ago are once again serving up “beige” unhealthy food such as panini, chips and burgers, Jamie Oliver has warned.

The chef, whose campaigning sparked a change in school food standards, said hard-won healthy habits had been abandoned during the pandemic.

A new report from Oliver’s food charity Bite Back found that school canteens had reverted to dishing out cheap and unhealthy food, with six in 10 no longer meeting national food standards.

Many schools have started selling sweets and fizzy drinks, while others have let major fast-food franchises open in their grounds, selling panini and cakes.

More than a third of families said their school only “sometimes” served vegetables, while more than one in 19 said their children were given none.

In 2005, Oliver campaigned for freshly prepared, healthy food to be a national requirement in schools, which led to the end of the Turkey Twizzler and the introduction of enforceable standards. But he warned that supply and logistics problems, coupled with Covid, had pushed schools to resort to unhealthy alternatives.

“Right now, it’s nobody’s job to monitor and enforce school food standards,” he told the Sunday Times. “We have come too far to go back to the days of Turkey Twizzlers. Kids don’t want more chips, cheap chicken and white bread sandwiches. They want decent food, not a return to the beige days.”

The new “Spill the Beans” report invited teenagers to take part in panel discussions about food in their schools between June and September this year.

It found some schools were offering 11 different types of desserts, as well as biscuits, doughnuts, pizza, sausage rolls, fried chicken wings and pasties.

Many youngsters said schools had ditched healthier options such as fruit and salad bowls. Where healthier food was available, it was priced far higher than junk options, the report found.

Many schools struggled to operate kitchens during the pandemic because of food and staff shortages.

Nick Capstick, chief executive of the White Horse Federation of 32 schools in southwest England, told the paper: “In the wake of Covid this is a call to arms. We need a reset of school dinners, and if that does not happen we will have new problems to deal with.”

Oliver said efforts to tackle the problem were too patchy to make a difference nationally, and that all children deserved the same high standard.

The Bite Back report calls for active monitoring of food in schools and an improvement in quality. It also wants a 400-metre exclusion zone around schools where unhealthy food cannot be sold. Menus should also be published on the school website, the charity says.

The Government is considering a national food strategy which includes a call to carry out regular inspection of school dinners.

Henry Dimbleby, the Government’s food tsar, has published his food strategy containing proposals to extend free school meals to more children.