Confusion abounded this week with the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) celebrating saving the School Fruit & Vegetable Scheme from the brink of extinction while the department of health insisted a question mark remains over the future of the much-lauded initiative.

The scheme had been under threat since the coalition government came to power. However, the FPC claimed this week, following talks with a department of health official, that two million infant-schoolchildren in England will continue to enjoy free fruit and vegetables under the scheme at least until the Primary Care Trusts, which deliver the scheme through a best-practice, central-procurement initiative, cease to exist in 2013.

But a department of health spokeswoman curbed trade enthusiasm: “The School Fruit & Vegetable Scheme is continuing and would run in its current form until March 2012,” she said. “However, the scheme will be reviewed in light of the new Public Health Service and public health ring-fenced budget system.”

FPC ceo Nigel Jenney said his organisation was “delighted” that the scheme has been rescued, but sounded a note of caution: “We recognise that there might still be pressure on the continuation of the central procurement process for the scheme beyond 2013 and FPC will persist in calling for its secure future.”