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Thursday, September 9, 2010 |
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Crisps are back on the menu in schools |
by Valerie Elliot, Consumer Editor - added 22/10/2008 |
This article is taken from th 'Schoold Gate' section of www.timesonline.co.uk
Just when you thought it was safe and healthy to allow your child to eat school dinners again (thanks to the efforts of Jamie Oliver and others), disturbing news arrives from the Soil Association .
Thousands of toddlers and other children at nurseries in England and Wales are being given “junk food” that is banned or limited in primary and secondary schools, according to a study by the Association and the food manufacturer Organix.
Youngsters attending some state, private and voluntary-run nurseries are being fed crisps, chocolate bars and biscuits, lollies, sweets, cakes and cheap burgers - these are all items banned or restricted for children aged 5 to 18 at schools.
The study, gleaned from an online survey of almost 500 nursery workers and 1,773 parents with children at nursery school, also found that chips still appear on the kindergarten menu - while in primary and secondary schools only two portions of deep-fried foods can be served to pupils each week.
Similarly older school children can only be given unsweetened fruit juice, whereas there are no rules on the type of fruit juice offered at nurseries.
The survey is small and the sample was self-selecting, but the results showed wide variation in type of food on offer to pre-school children.
When asked to choose the option which best described the food served at their nursery almost one in ten staff said “lots of processed food such as biscuits, burgers, and sugary drinks like orange squash.”
Nurseries were even flouting standards on drinking water. Access to drinking water should be available throughout the school day for all under eights , but according to the survey only 27 per cent of staff said children were regularly served water.
Ed Balls, Schools Secretary, is now being urged to introduce tough new standards on nursery food to help pre-school children eat healthier diets and to help combat the country’s obesity crisis.
Peter Melchett, policy director at the Soil Association, which champions organic food and farming, said: “Until now, everyone has overloooked the quality of food given to children in nurseries. Sadly in many cases we have been overlooking a scandal. Children under five are at their most vulnerable. It is then they really need healthy food.”
Over 600,000 children go to nursery for up to 10 hours a day with parents paying an average £159 a week or just over £31 a day for a child under two. However only 3 to 6 per cent of nursery charges are spent on food, and 3 per cent spent as little as 25p a day feeding a child. No wonder they serve crisps. |
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