The survey published today by the FSA studied 556 home-packed lunches taken to school by children from 24 primary schools across the UK in April this year.
Among other findings, the study revealed that the content of just 21 per cent of the lunchboxes met the minimum standards set for primary school meals.
The national standards state that school meals must offer one portion each of fruit and vegetables but there are no such guidelines for lunches brought to school by children which account for more than half of those consumed by the school population.
"Parents face a daily challenge trying to get their children to eat healthy foods and usually it is the children who call the shots when it comes to deciding what should go in their lunchboxes," said chef Robert Rees of the FSA board. "Small changes to what children eat now can have a big impact on their diet and health in the future."
As the new school year gets under way, the FSA has posted a whole month's worth of packed lunch ideas on its website to help parents. It has also outlined that a balance diet should include portions of fruit and vegetables as well as dairy, starchy and protein-source foods.
"Equipped with the material from the survey of real lunchboxes, the agency has been able to provide practical and straightforward advice that will help parents increase the variety of foods they prepare and also take steps to reduce the amount of saturated fat, sugar and salt," added Rees.
The survey also revealed that nine out of 10 lunchboxes contain foods that are too high in saturated fat, salt and sugar.
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