A free fruit scheme for schools across Europe was adopted by the European Parliament yesterday, in a bid to tackle obesity across the continent.
The European Commission will provide €90 million (£76m) annually to finance the initiative, and member states are asked to contribute on a voluntary basis - much like the existing school milk scheme.
EU farm ministers met in Brussels yesterday and agreed the proposal, with the free distribution planned to begin at the start of the 2009-10 school year.
EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said: “Giving kids good habits at an early age is crucial, as they will carry these into later life. Too many of our children eat far too little fruit and vegetables and often don’t realise how delicious they are.
“You only have to walk down any high street in Europe to see the extent of the problems we face with overweight kids. Now we can do something about it.”
The decision has been welcomed by fresh produce trade associations across Europe, including the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) in the UK and European body Freshfel Europe.
FPC ceo Nigel Jenney said: “Many UK fresh produce businesses are involved already in the successful UK School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme (SFVS), and we support the development of an EU-wide school fruit scheme. We’d like to see the UK initiative extended so that more children have the chance to eat fresh fruit and vegetables at school and to develop good eating habits at an early age.
“We urge the UK government to seize this opportunity to build on the success of the SFVS. We look forward to discussing with the government how the industry can play its part in addressing this critical issue of public health.”
Philippe Binard, general delegate of Freshfel, welcomed the scheme but suggested that it was insufficient to stem the rising trend towards obesity. “The commission proposal is built upon the distribution of one piece of fruit per child per week during the school term,” he said. “To have an impact and change eating habits among the youngest, the commission proposal remains insufficient. Freshfel therefore supports the parliament’s position that fruit should be made available every day of the week, to secure the greatest efficiency of the measure.”
The idea was born following a reform of the EU fruit and vegetable subsidy system last year. Rather than destroy overproduction in order to keep prices down, it was decided to provide extra fruit to schoolchildren for free.
Some 22m youngsters in the EU are overweight and 5m of them classified as clinically obese. That figure is set to rise by 400,000 per year.
Member states can either contribute to the scheme on a 50:50 basis with the commission, or 75:25 for poorer nations and outlying regions.
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