While the School Fruit & Vegetable Scheme is improving the fresh produce intake of the nation’s children, politicians are warning that the British school dinner system is in meltdown.
An evaluation by the National Foundation of Educational Research (NFER) found that 44 per cent of children in north-east schools were eating their 5 A DAY.
However, far fewer children eschewing the school dinner for home-made packed lunches are meeting their recommended target.
And the Liberal Democrats said school meals are in "meltdown", with party spokesman David Laws saying more than 400,000 pupils have opted out of school meals since 2005 - when the government launched its Jamie Oliver-inspired campaign to improve the diet of school children.
The NFER researchers found that the largest increase in consumption was in vegetables, not fruit, which may indicate that changes in school meals had a greater impact." Children eating school lunches ate "significantly" more vegetables at lunchtime (0.94 of a portion) compared to those with packed lunches (0.18 of a portion).
Schools Minister Lord Adonis, said that a short-term drop was to be expected before the long-term aims come to fruition. "When you are withdrawing the fizzy drinks, the crisps, the sweets, the chocolate bars, then clearly there is going to be an immediate transitional issue," he said.
And, choosing to take the tack that children eating school dinners eat more healthily, Beverly Hughes, minister for children, young people and families, said: "I'm pleased to see that school meals are having an impact on diet and new tougher regulations coming in this week will mean that young people can no longer buy fizzy drinks, chocolate bars and crisps in tuck shops or vending machines in schools. Junk food is now off the menu throughout the school day."
Joe Harvey, director of the Health Education Trust, said tougher regulations on advertising and increased entitlement to free school meals would help. He said: "We all know good food costs more and if parents just above the poverty line find themselves squeezed, they will supply packed lunches, instead of nutritionally balanced school meals."