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New look school meals for next term
26/06/2008
Primary schools will soon have new-look menus with unhealthy snacks disappearing from dining rooms after legislation was passed in the Parliament with the aim of transforming school meals and help young people make healthier food choices.
From August, primary schools will no longer provide sweets and fizzy drinks for children and will instead:
- Offer at least two portions of fruit and vegetables every lunchtime
- Serve oily fish once every three weeks
- Limit deep fried food to three items each week.
- Chips will only be served as part of an overall balanced and nutritional meal
Minister for Children and Young People Adam Ingram said:
"Putting healthy options on a plate for pupils every day will develop their taste for the food that's good for them and stop unhealthy habits from taking hold. That means they benefit on a daily basis and for the rest of their lives."
The nutritional regulations were created with input from a group of nutrition, child health, dental and education experts who gave their advice on what should be served up in school canteens and vending machines.
The new legislation will come into force in secondary schools from August 3, 2009, to allow them more time to make a phased transition to the healthier menus.
However, schools which feel able to make the changes effectively from August will be encouraged to do so. Fife Council has already said it will not wait until August 2009 to embark on the changes in secondaries.
A Fife Council spokesperson said:
"We intend to be ahead of the game and are planning to introduce the changes in secondary schools in January. We will, of course, be ensuring that all schools are aware of the regulations and that these regulations apply to the whole school and not just to catering facilities."
Local authorities and schools were asked to adopt a whole-school approach to promoting the wellbeing of all pupils and staff and a framework for health promoting schools was laid out in the document Being Well - Doing Well. The Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition) (Scotland) Act 2007 builds on this work.
This is statutory guidance issued by the Scottish Government under section 2A (4) of the Standards in Scotland's School etc Act 2000.