Junk food limits set for schools
Junk food limits set for schools
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Friday, 19, May 2006 10:44
The government is publishing new nutritional standards aimed at limiting the amount of junk food available in Britain's schools.
Under the new rules, to be announced by education secretary Alan Johnson later today, low quality meat, fizzy drinks and chocolate, will be among food items banned from school lunch menus.
From September, school caterers will be required to offer pupils high quality meat, poultry or oily fish on a regular basis.
Children will also be served a minimum of two portions of fruit and vegetables with every school meal, while deep fried foods such as chips will only be on offer twice a week.
The new nutritional standards follow a high-profile campaign by TV chef Jamie Oliver to improve the quality of school meals.
His Channel 4 reality show, Jamie's School Dinners, revealed the poor quality of food on offer in south-east London's schools and disclosed how little some education authorities were spending on pupils' meals.
The government subsequently pledged to provide an additional £280 million to improve the quality of school dinners.
Commenting on the government's new nutritional guidelines, a spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said the standards would "undo decades of neglect in school meals provision".
"They are the result of over a year's work and have been widely consulted with professional associations, dieticians, health charities, and food and drink organizations," added the spokesman.