Leading figures from the UK food industry have called on the government to follow the US after it announced the biggest shake up of federal school food guidelines in 15 years.
The US Department of Agriculture’s new guidelines, which require students to select at least one fruit or vegetable with every meal, will take effect this autumn.
In 2010 the Fresh Produce Consortium campaigned to support the future of the Schools Fruit and Vegetable Scheme when the UK government undertook a spending review and chief executive Nigel Jenney feels the UK must now replicate the US ambition.
“We want more children to have the chance to develop good eating habits at an early age and an ambitious programme is needed to tackle obesity and poor diet among children. We believe that the UK government must now start to build on the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme,” explained Jenney.
Malcolm Clark, who heads up food charity Sustain’s Children’s Food Campaign, added: “America has just introduced mandatory school food standards, so it seems very strange indeed for our government to now be backing away from them. We need to speed up the pace of improvements, increase funding and ensure all schools are included; not change direction or allow academies to opt out.”
Claire Rick of government advisory body the School Food Trust fears standards of food in schools could dip if momentum for initiatives such as the Schools Fruit and Vegetable scheme isn’t maintained.
“There is still a lot to do, with the majority of kids in England still taking packed lunches to school. Too many families are not aware that they qualify for free school meals and there are still too many schools that don’t have adequate kitchens,” concluded Rick.
US Scheme
Schools must now offer dark green, orange or red vegetables and legumes at least once a week, and students are required to select at least one vegetable or fruit per meal.
Year 6 students must have 550-650 calories per day and Year 10 plus 750-850 calories.
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