As part of the government’s Levelling Up White Paper, the Food Standards Agency, in conjunction with the Department for Education, is designing a pilot to check out nutritional standards at schools in England

School meals are a thorny subject, as every head teacher tries to balance the costs with the practicalities of serving healthy food that the little cherubs will actually eat. Although we’ve come a long way since Jamie Oliver had Turkey Twizzlers banned in 2005, there are still massive discrepancies between the nutritional value of the food served in different schools, and rising levels of obesity among children during the pandemic are causing concern. With kids eating lunch in school for 190 days of the (non-­lockdown) year, what they eat over the school day can have a massive impact on their overall health. So what will the new measures mean for schools, and what are schools already doing to ensure pupils are appropriately fuelled?

Since 2015, maintained schools, academies and non-maintained special schools have been asked to adhere to the School Food Standards, whose school dinners mandate includes serving high-quality meat, poultry, oily fish, fruit and vegetables, no fizzy drinks, crisps or chocolate etc., and no more than two portions of deep-fried, battered or breaded food a week. Now the Department for Education and the Food Standards Agency will pilot checks to ensure food standards are being implemented and will make schools accountable should they fall short. This will initially happen in Blackpool, Lincolnshire, Plymouth and Nottingham later this year, before being rolled out elsewhere.

As well as encouraging schools to take a “whole school approach” to food, embedding a healthy food culture within the curriculum, canteen and wider community, more government investment is promised. Training and support worth £200,000 will be provided for school governors, and £5 million of funding will support teachers to ensure each child leaves school knowing how to cook six recipes.