British Schools dictate what students can pack in their lunchboxes

[rambone]

The War on Obesity rages on... coming soon to our shores.

Another government program that is more about controlling the people and destroying individual liberty than it is about solving any perceived problems.

Ofsted: schools banning unhealthy snacks in lunchboxes

Schools are snooping on children’s lunchboxes to stop them bringing sweets and fatty food into dining halls, according to Ofsted.

Head teachers are drawing up strict policies on packed lunches – setting out a list of banned items – to deter parents from giving unhealthy snacks to sons and daughters, it was disclosed.

This comes despite claims from parents that the advice is often seen as “interfering and bossy”.

In some schools, staff also used electronic payment systems to monitor what children ate in canteens, allowing them to steer pupils onto healthier choices “where necessary”.

The disclosures were made in a report into rules drawn up to improve the standard of food served in English state schools.

All schools are required to provide healthy menus introduced in the wake of a high-profile campaign by Jamie Oliver, the television chef.

Under guidelines, junk food is banned from vending machines and tuck shops while salt must be removed from canteen tables. Severe restrictions are also placed on food such as burgers, sausages and meat pies, while schools are advised against using butter on sandwiches.

Almost four-in-10 schools inspected by Ofsted were failing to comply with the full food standards imposed by the Government.

Rules requiring staff to provide a portion of fruit for every pupil eating a school lunch was flouted most often by primaries, while many secondaries failed to restrict the sale of deep-fried food.

According to the report, food policies were often “undermined” by pupils bringing unhealthy packed lunches into schools.

A fifth of the schools “tried to combat this” by introducing policies on packed lunches, effectively setting out a list of banned items.

Ofsted said some parents “saw the school as being ‘interfering’ and ‘bossy’ and reacted against the advice”.

“Rather than being told what not to give their children, they wanted more guidance on how to prepare a healthy and balanced packed lunch,” said the report.

The study also told how some schools were using “cashless” payment machines to find out whether children were selecting healthy choices from canteen menus.

One school was “was able to monitor the food intake of all students taking lunch and, where necessary, to discuss how they might make healthier choices”, Ofsted said.

The same school also identified a number of “overweight students” and established an eight-week programme of exercise and healthy eating.

The new food standards have already been criticised for driving up the price of school dinners. The average lunch served in schools has increased by almost 13 per cent in three years to at least £1.66.

Ofsted said that families just above the threshold for free meals were particularly hit, with claims that some were forced to limit the number of times children could eat school dinners.

“Discussions with some of these parents indicated that they had to budget very carefully if they were to pay for a school meal,” said Ofsted. “There were instances where siblings had to take turns to have a school lunch because of the cost.”

Sally Copley, head of policy at Save the Children UK, said: "This report shows how far the school dinner has come - most schools now have healthy food providing a balanced diet which improves children's health and helps them concentrate.

"The problem is that there are still too many children who can't afford them.

"School meals cost around £10 a week per child - which can be a real strain on less well off families - this report even found children from the same family having to take turns every other week to have a school lunch."

She called on the Government to reverse its decision to axe free school meals for an extra 50,000 primary pupils. The Coalition scrapped an earlier pledge by Labour to expand eligibility for free lunches as part of its austerity package.

Judy Hargadon, chief executive of the Government's School Food Trust, said: "The aims of good school food are to improve children’s health and help them perform at their best, and this report gives us a snapshot of schools using lunchtime to serve up a very clear message about healthy eating to pupils.

"Some findings echo our own research about the impact of the new national standards for food in primary schools, which showed that children do have healthier options on their plates now and that the food on offer in dining rooms has fundamentally changed.”

 

[melensdad]

Private schools in the US do this now. My daughter attended a school from 6th to 8th grade that banned unhealthy snacks at parties. They mandated low sugar snacks be brought in for birthdays, etc. For daily lunches they banned caffeine in soda, strongly discouraged all soda the first year, then banned it completely later. There were other limits but I can't recall all of them.

 

[Colt556]

Isn't that what Mrs Obamanation is trying to do now?

 

[JetGirl]

Another government program that is more about controlling the people and destroying individual liberty than it is about solving any perceived problems.

What did you expect from people who put 24hr CCTV in the homes of school children to monitor their families and "make sure they are doing their homework or getting to bed on time"?
Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Sin bins for worst families

There were other limits but I can't recall all of them.

Probably "no peanut products" because of allergies of a few. Which means, no PBJ's in the lunch box, or anything with peanut oil (lots of crackers, chips, cookies, etc.).

 

[melensdad]

Probably "no peanut products" because of allergies of a few. Which means, no PBJ's in the lunch box, or anything with peanut oil (lots of crackers, chips, cookies, etc.).

Nope, but I do think that potato chips and other similar snacks were banned. I know peanut butter was not because that was a pretty common lunch for my daughter.

Funny thing is they had a 'soft serve' ice cream machine that they used to reward kids for good deeds.

 

[Boilers]

USA headed towards food control.

1. You do not have the right to whatever food you want (to eat).
2. adopting world food standards.