New year, new food standards

The New Year often marks the opening of exciting new chapters, and this is certainly the case with school food. On January 1 the new school food standards come into force. All local authority maintained schools, academies and free schools – set up before 2010 and created from June 2014 – have a legal requirement to meet these new standards. 
   
When we developed the existing standards back in 2006, it was always intended that these would be reviewed. The current standards were introduced because voluntary school food guidelines introduced in 2001 requiring caterers to provide healthy options but not to limit access to less healthy food had failed to promote healthier eating in school.
   
The introduction of compulsory standards in 2006 quickly improved the food that children eat at school. On average, school meals now contain 30 per cent less sugar, salt and saturated fat than before the original standards were introduced.

Review
An independent review of school food published in 2013, the ‘School Food Plan’, recommended that the government create a clearer set of food-based standards, accompanied by practical guidance, that provided caterers with a framework on which to build interesting, creative and nutritionally‑balanced menus. The standards also needed to be less time consuming and cheaper to implement than the existing standards.
   
This independent review had found that some schools and their caterers considered the current school food standards difficult to understand and use, particularly the nutritional analysis of recipes and menus.
   
The new standards are food-based with the emphasis on them being accessible, easy to understand and, most importantly of all, easy to use.

The Children’s Food Trust played a major part in developing these standards. We advised the School Food Plan’s Standards Expert Panel and pilot tested the new standards with schools and caterers.
   
We tested the new standards with the people who would be using them – school caterers and cooks. They told us the new standards were easier and more intuitive to use to plan interesting and creative menus, which has got to be great news for children and school food.

The spice of life
The general principle of the new standards emphasises the importance of providing a wide range of foods across the week. Variety is key – whether it is different fruits, vegetables, grains, pulses or types of meat and fish.
   
Offering a wider range of different foods provides a better balance of nutrients. Quality, nutritious food is important because our research shows that if children eat a healthy school meal in a pleasant environment, they concentrate better in afternoon classes. The new standards are another step in the right direction towards our goal of ensuring that all children have access to appropriate amounts of energy and nutrients at school.

Helping schools deliver
The Trust has also helped to develop practical guidance for schools and their caterers to help them to understand and meet these new standards. Although there is now no need for schools and their caterers to nutritionally analyse their recipes and menus, they will need to follow the standards. To help everyone involved in school food provision meet the standards, we’ve also published free, practical tools they can download and use.
   
This practical tools include checklists, information on food customs, a chart of British seasonal food, a drinks table summarising the types of drinks permitted, and examples of compliant menus to illustrate how schools can plan menus to meet the new standards. We have also launched a menu checking service which will give schools and their caterers the reassurance that their menus not only meet the new standards but also the best practice guidance on portion sizes.
   
While the standards apply to all local authority maintained schools, academies and free schools set up before 2010 and created from June 2014, they don’t apply to academies founded between 2010 and June 2014.
   
The more academies that sign up, the more children will have access to healthy food at school – food that will help them to eat better and do better. Here’s to a happy new year and an exciting new chapter for school food.

Further information
www.childrensfoodtrust.org.uk
info@childrensfoodtrust.org
0114 299 6901