Update ‘weak’ school meal rules, government urged

The government has been encouraged to bring in a mandatory meat-free, ‘plant-based protein day’ to school meals each week to tackle the climate change and obesity crises.

With the Department for Education currently reviewing its School Food Standards, the Soil Association is calling for a meat-free day with meals based around beans and pulses compulsory each week.

The recent EAT-Lancet and UK Climate Change Committee reports have both emphasised the need for dietary change including a shift towards less but better meat, but the School Food Standards currently only includes a non-mandatory recommendation to include a weekly meat-free day. Few schools are doing it and, when it does take place, options are often restricted to less healthy options like cheese laden pasta or pizza.

As part of its review, the Department for Education is set to consider recommendations that children should eat more beans and pulses to bring the standards in line with the latest evidence on too little fibre in our diets.

Rob Percival, head of Policy for Food & Health at the Soil Association, said: “The updated School Food Standards should require that all schools serve a plant-based protein day each week. The current, non-compulsory advice for a meat-free day is too weak. We know children would benefit nutritionally from eating more beans, pulses, and plant-based proteins and the climate would also benefit – we should all be eating less and better meat. Leading Food for Life schools are already showing that it is possible to serve children healthy plant-based meals, with the cost saving used to ‘trade-up’ to higher-welfare and more sustainable meat for the rest of the week. It’s time the government caught up.”