Schoolchildren are still eating unhealthily despite the introduction of nutritional standards for school dinners. Pizzas, chicken nuggets, chips and baked beans are forming the basis of children's daily diets, a study by the consumer group Which? found.
Government nutritional standards for school meals were introduced in 2001, and inspections have shown a wide variety of foods, including vegetables, salad and fruit, are on offer.
But children are tending to opt for less healthy dishes that are high in saturated fat, sugar and salt.
How can children be encouraged to eat healthier foods? Should schools ban fatty foods from their lunch menus altogether?
This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.
Your reaction
Blame lies with parents for being lazy and uninterested in food. Since moving back in with them at the age of 28, I'm finding myself turning to takeaways again to offset the feeling of dissatisfaction with food at home.
Nick, UK
Chicken nuggets and chips should be regarded as "treat" foods: not forming the basis of children's daily diets. By allowing children to choose these unhealthier options, it is promoting unhealthy eating habits which will have consequences in later life. Why not remove these foods from the school menus and let them be eaten as treats at home?
Joanna, England
 The Government's move to nutritional standards in schools is only the first step  |
The Government's move to nutritional standards in schools is only the first step. Children develop a preference for foods high in saturated fat, sugar and salt at home from an early age. There needs to be an initiative towards educating parents as to the benefits of a healthier diet for their kids. Obviously this is very difficult and would require examples of how healthier foods aren't more expensive and the economic benefits in terms of child's health costs.
Charlie, UK Forget the food, a major culprit is soda, also known as "liquid candy". It has so much sugar, yet people will drink several cans a day and skip dessert because they're "trying to eat healthy". If people get enough exercise, they can eat whatever they want, in moderation.
Fern, USA
It's all about educating the kids |
All it takes is a little time and trouble to produce fresh, nutritious food which children enjoy every day, commodities the average parent and school fail to take. In schools the food is no longer cooked fresh, but imported from a factory and reheated on the premises. There's nothing wrong with the taste of good food, cooked simply - it's all about educating the kids.
Andy Millward, UK It's not just kids! I'm 25, and still unable to make these 'informed diet decisions'. Help please mum!
Anon, England
Children's diets need structure. They should not be allowed total freedom to choose. Reinstate council control of real kitchens cooking fresh, organic, foods in an inventive, nutritious and flavourful way. Our local school uses the Food Rainbow that I and my wife devised, and it has beneficial results. If we were to treble the current miserly spend on school food, we would get it back in aces and spades.
Paul Nicholas, Wales
Perhaps I'm a throw-back, but kids must be told what to do |
Perhaps I'm a throw-back, but sometimes encouragement is not enough and kids must be told what to do, and that includes what to eat - in your presence of course because they will eat what they want when they're on their own.
Chris, US My seven and 10-year-old stopped having school dinners as they wanted vegetables and did not get a good choice. They now make their own packed lunches and have a cooked meal in the evening. My children prefer veg to meat, my daughter's favourite are sprouts and cauliflower, my sons' broccoli and carrots.
Caron, England
I have always hated school food, it is disgusting, unhealthy and usually has a high sugar content (I suffer from diabetes). Since I am at secondary school and have been given the freedom to go to a nearby village, I buy my own fruit, and food so that I always get a decent amount of all the important minerals. It's is the best solution I have come up with.
Jason K, England
I was at secondary school three years ago and I would not dare to eat proper food there. I felt there was more chance of being poisoned by it than chips. Ironic really. I'm not fussy, it really was that bad.
Robert Stewart, UK
Schools have done them a big disservice |
Children's diets used to be well-balanced, until the Tories under Mrs Thatcher abandoned properly-prepared school meals and went over to cafeteria-style catering. Ever since then, we've heard stories of declining childhood diets year after year. Children need guidance when they are young - that's what being children means. They especially need to be discouraged from stuffing themselves with chips, sweets and other comfort foods. By allowing them to do otherwise, schools have done them a big disservice.
David Hazel, UK I don't mind blaming Mrs Thatcher for lots of things - but quality of school food? Where has all this nostalgia come from? I left school 30 years ago - and from what I remember of school dinners was that they were unspeakably disgusting!
Andy, UK
Why do kids eat junk food? The answer's simple - it tastes nicer! I used to hate broccoli - but only because I only knew it in its overcooked, mushy form. I've never seen any canteen serve it in any other way, especially not school canteens.
Josephine, UK
Since when is pizza, chicken nuggets or baked beans BAD for you? Pizza has tomato sauce, bread and cheese. We find these same ingredients in other combinations in our world. Chicken nuggets are nothing more than fried chicken without the bone. Baked beans? C'mon. Beans in a tomato-based sauce. Bad for you? I'd say this criticism has more to do with the Americanisation of the British diet than anything else.
Sally Taylor, USA
Those claiming that the baked bean, pizza, chicken nugget diet is healthy should check out the ingredients lists. Baked beans are no longer beans in a tomato-based sauce. Does it really taste of tomato to you? Most of that sauce is thickener, artificial flavouring and colouring. Chicken nuggets are notorious for their low meat and high fat contents as another report by Which? will tell you. I could go on.
Julie, UK
It's down to us as parents to educate our own children about food |
I try to ensure that as a family, we eat healthy meals with plenty of fresh fruit and veggies. This is sometimes difficult as I work full-time in a demanding job that frequently requires working long hours and travel at short notice. Banning less healthy food is unlikely to work unless schools also ditch vending machines and snack bars selling cans of fizzy drinks, cookies, crisps and chocolate bars which provide them with much needed additional income. It's down to us as parents to educate our own children about food. Schools do provide support covering nutrition within physical, social and religious education lessons.
Mandy, UK You only have to watch what parents are putting into their supermarket trollies. You cannot expect a child to choose foods such as vegetables, salads and fruit when it is clearly not what they are fed at home.
Sarah, UK
I am appalled when I see the rubbish parents give their children. Parents and schools need to be educated on basic nutrition. There is no nutrition in a chicken nugget! Children must do what they're told and EAT THEIR GREENS!
Gigi, UK/Zim
The answer sadly is pester power and lazy parents. When I was at school we had traditional meals of meat/fish/veg and that was it. Then there was a revolt and burgers, pizza, chips with everything was introduced. It's actually cheaper to eat healthily - i.e. chopping veg everyday. But look around the supermarkets - ready meals everywhere.
Anon, London
British kids used to be built on baked beans |
What's wrong with baked beans, and why are they maligned in the introduction? Lots of iron and fibre. British kids used to be built on baked beans.
Greg, Canada/UK Genetically modify a salad to taste like chips and away you go!
Richie, UK
If vegetables are good for children surely evolutionary natural selection would have made kids like their taste?! How about we feed behaving kids pizza and misbehaving kids sprouts?
Chris Gledhill, England
Children have very little time to choose what to eat when queuing up, why not ask them to pre-select as patients in hospital do? This way they could be advised of healthy options and the moment of weakness could be avoided. Or for primary school parents could do this weekly with children and agree in advance what their diet at school will be. This would benefit the kitchen staff as they could gauge more popular choices for ordering.
Caroline Moran, UK
Children will tend to eat the food they are given at home. For example, I eat a lot of pasta and fish like salmon at home. So if I eat in the school canteen I'll chose the pasta if it's on offer. With a lot of parents working things like frozen pizza are, of course, popular for younger children because they are quick. Now I'm older I cook for myself. Maybe food technology could be used to help? That's where I learnt to cook pasta and make scones etc - nutritional analysis is part of the course.
Jane, England
At 33 I have no heart, obesity or allergy problems! |
Pre-teen children are generally not capable of making an informed choice for a diet, so naturally they chose what they like the taste of - pizza, chips, etc. When I was at primary school we had a set meal. At middle school there were two choices every day. Then at secondary school we were given a choice. What was wrong with this system? At 33 I have no heart, obesity or allergy problems!
Gary, England I'm originally from Finland, where they offer free meals at schools, from nursery to high school. The food is good and healthy and it's made with incredibly low budget. There's always salad and milk available and often a vegetarian option and fish is on the menu at least once a week. This a great way to make sure that the children have a warm and healthy meal at least once a day and it helps them learn about healthy diet. It may not be possible to offer a free meal to everyone in British schools, but the food could be a lot healthier with the same budget.
Raila, England
Food producers need to be more imaginative about combining healthy foods with junk food, thereby confusing children into eating things that are good for them. I suggest that they consider the following ideas: pea and spinach pizza; beetroot and sweetcorn spaghetti Bolognese; carrot ice-cream; boiled chips (instead of fried); and, my personal favourite, burgers made from mashed cabbage and crushed bran flakes.
Wayland, UK
Why pick on the kids? If they are made to eat healthy food then so should the adults!
James, UK/Japan
If you stick to the "chop up vegetables and steam them", then it is healthy but only plain and disgusting cooking that nobody wants to eat. What you need is inventive cooking incorporating the vegetables and fruits as part of the dish and not supplements.
David, France
You can't convince kids that sprouts can be fun when everyone knows they taste like ear wax |
If billions of parents can't get children to eat their greens how can one government? Perhaps making the methods of cooking chips and pizzas should be changed to make them healthier instead of trying to convince kids that sprouts can be fun when everyone knows they taste like ear wax.
Mark Wilson, UK The problem surely starts at home. We seem to have a whole generation of young parents who can't cook and know nothing about nutrition. Is this not taught any more - or are more fashionable topics like design and media studies taking their place?
Bob, England
Make the food more interesting, and make it taste nicer. And at a price we can afford. Healthy food is seen on the adverts and in the shops as something that is expensive. You want your kids to be healthy - you pay for it. The government needs to crack down on the over-inflated prices of healthy and organic food. Only when that happens will people be able to afford to feed their children more healthily and then those children will be able to reflect that is what they want from schools.
Rick H, UK
Children will eat what they are used too, my young niece and nephew were brought up in the east, as expats, where all varieties of fresh veg are in abundance. Of course they like the odd burger or Kentucky but their day to day preference is well cooked fresh produce. UK parents in general are too lazy with a stick under the grill - the fry it, micro it attitude.
Ken, UK
Firstly educate parents. No food in moderation is bad for you.
Ian Simmins, UK
Ban all pizza, chicken nuggets and chip adverts before the watershed |
You can produce all of the guidelines, advice booklets and government strategies you want but they will not work without two factors supporting them. Firstly, the parents must lead by example and secondly, the advertising budgets of the pizza, chicken nuggets and chip manufacturers is way in excess of that offered by any healthy eating campaign, you need to consider banning such adverts before the watershed, thus reducing the opportunity for pester power.
Gerry, Scotland Schoolchildren, particularly those in primary school, should be presented with a meal. The same for everyone, as produced by a dietician over the five day period. OK so it becomes repetitive and predictable, however, from the reports out, their diets are predictable and repetitive now! Only with the wrong food.
DS, UK
When I stand at the checkout in my supermarket I am amazed at the rubbish parents buy and feed to their children. Their trolleys are full of convenience foods and packets. Where are the fresh vegetables? Where's the fruit? I resent the fact that I am going out to work so that my tax can pay others in child benefit so parents buy food shortcuts instead of taking just that little bit longer to chop up vegetables and steam them or involve their children in cooking. It also comes down to saying "no" to children which seems to be a forgotten word nowadays.
Jasmine, UK
Nutrition should be talked about in the classroom and effects of a bad diet should be emphasised |
Schools should stop serving food like fried chips and burgers - of course a child is going to choose that over veggies. I think food nutrition should be talked about in the classroom and effects of a bad diet should be emphasised. If more info was available (maybe posters in the canteen), and if schools made healthy food appear more appetising then kids would go for it. I had anorexia when I was at secondary school and I didn't have a clue about good nutrition, therefore a good diet seemed to be eating nothing, rather than eating well. Seeing as eating disorders are so rife in teenage girls, I would have thought healthy school canteens would help to educate them about how to eat well.
Karen, England These matters are best dealt with before children even start school. Parents need to encourage their children from a very early age to eat healthier food, but then that is not easy in today's high pressured society.
Jonathan, UK
Food education must start in the home. If children have a diet of chips, beans, and burgers at home, then they will expect the same at school. A gradual phasing out of some of the least healthy foods may help.
Peter, Devon, UK
Easy. Don't provide the rubbish. If it ain't there, they can't choose it. Children are depressingly conservative and will select the safe option over something more adventurous. My son's primary school does not provide meals so they take packed lunch. My son has been laughed at for taking olives, almonds, mango, rice cakes etc. A quick word with the head and she had a classroom wide "discussion" with them and that was that. These things are only problems if they are encouraged to be so.
CC, England
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