SPOTLIGHT ON: School Food Standards (Action 2)
15 Nov 2013
The School Food Plan comprises sixteen actions designed to transform school food culture across the country. This week’s update looks at Action 2, around the School Food Standards.
School food standards provide an essential nutritional safety net, ensuring children have access to the energy and nutrients they need. They are of particular importance for those pupils for whom school lunch may be the main meal of the day.
As part of the School Food Plan, a specially convened Standards Panel has undertaken the challenge of revising the existing school food standards to make them even better. Chaired by Henry Dimbleby, co-author of the School Food Plan, the Panel includes experienced scientists, head teachers, cooks and caterers. The Panel has created a clearer set of food-based standards, accompanied by practical guidance, which together will:
- provide caterers with a framework on which to build interesting, creative and nutritionally-balanced menus
- be less burdensome and operationally cheaper to implement than the current nutrient-based standards.
This week, testing of the revised food-based standards began. A wide range of schools and caterers across the country have enthusiastically signed up to join the process (click here to view full list of participating schools and caterers). The testing is being coordinated by the Children’s Food Trust.
Professor Susan Jebb OBE, from the University of Oxford and a member of the Standards Panel, explains: “We believe we have developed a set of food-based standards, building on a nutritional framework, that will enable children to receive nutritious foods. This is such a crucial component of the School Food Plan that it’s important to get every detail right – that’s why the testing phase, working with schools and caterers, is so vital. We’ve been swept away by the positive response so far, people are really keen to help support the revision process.”
Through testing, school cooks and caterers are using the new draft standards and accompanying guidance to create and deliver menus for their pupils. They are being asked to comment on the flexibility, creativity, and cost implications in contrast to the existing food- and nutrition-based standards. The Standards Panel will then analyse the nutritional content of the menus produced during testing, and will compare this with the current nutritional framework to assess whether any further changes to the food based standards are needed, before reporting back to the Department for Education.
Panel member professor Ashley Adamson of Newcastle University adds: “with the introduction of universal infant free school meals, it is more important than ever that we have robust standards in place so schools across the country deliver nutritious and delicious food to pupils.”
The Department for Education is expected to launch its public consultation on the standards in early 2014.
If you have any questions or comments on the proposed new school food standards we would love to hear from you – just email info@schoolfoodplan.com