Proposed nutritious kids meals could benefit processors

Manufacturers should seize the opportunities offered them by fledgling plans to create healthier alternatives to the meals schoolchildren are currently eating, according to a leading academic in the field.

Jack Winkler, professor of nutrition policy at London Metropolitan University, said: “One of the things we’re very keen on is that shops start providing healthier boxed meals, the equivalent of packed lunch or breakfast. You could sell them in school and make some boxes available in shops, so you generate revenue for them.”

He also proposed that processors could co-operate with retailers in selling these healthier boxed meals at times that matched children’s shopping habits, such as before 9am, during break times and after school.

Speaking at the Westminster Education Forum Keynote Seminar in London, ‘‘Healthy school food - eating and learning’’, Winkler reported on research he had been involved in on schoolchildren’s eating habits. The study looked at ‘school fringe’ consumption - or their eating outside school, but during the school day.

The analysis entailed recording all the food schoolchildren at two comprehensives bought from nearby shops and calculating its nutritional value. “We’re talking about 500 calories per day per child. These are not snacks; these are a major component of the diet of schoolchildren in the midst of an obesity epidemic.”

Winkler praised the School Food Trust’s work in revolutionising meals served in school, but he said: “Our research shows this is the least common source of food for schoolchildren. A total of 80% of schoolchildren buy from shops and those that do, do so more than once a day. 40% never go to the canteen and only 6% had a hot meal.”

School canteens were also being undercut by local shops and takeaways, he said. The cheapest meals in the school canteens analysed were priced at £1.65, versus £1 for some meals sold locally.

“Sooner or later our school feeding reform is going to have to engage with food outside schools,” said Winkler. “We’re going to have to do something about what supermarkets, convenience stores and newsagents are offering kids.”