Will guidelines improve school meals?

Education Secretary Ruth Kelly will reveal plans to tighten the health requirements for school meals in England.

Ministers want to reduce the amount of fat, salt and sugar contained in school dinners in an attempt to improve behaviour and tackle the rising levels of childhood obesity.

Parents, the food industry, schools and nutritionists will be consulted on what should be on the menu for school children.

What meals would you like to see introduced in schools? Will healthy food tempt children away from burger, pizza and chips? Will it have an effect on childhood obesity rates?

This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.

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The following comments reflect the balance of opinion we have received so far:

The vending machines are being phased out and the kids aren't allowed off grounds for lunch Lisa, Cambridge, UK

It's getting better! Our local school has introduced a smart card system and the school canteen will accept only the card (which is topped up with cash or cheque as needed). The vending machines are being phased out and the kids aren't allowed off grounds for lunch. When teachers start seeing behaviour improve as a result of better meals at lunch, then you'll see even more encouragement for the governors to ensure that contractors offer decent food, not just cheap food.
Lisa, Cambridge, UK

What was wrong with the way school meals were catered for just 20 years ago? No going out of school. And good old meat and two veg. It's not difficult to implement, except for the fact that it might infringe the human rights of the poor darlings who may wish to leave school and go get a burger.
Nick, UK

My daughter is going to start taking a packed lunch because I have discovered that all she is having at school is a plain jacket potato. The reason being that she doesn't like the burgers and chips as she has never been given them before and is quite a foodie (aged 7)! If the children won't eat the healthy food I don't know what they can do, but it is annoying when your child has a preference for healthy food yet doesn't get an option to have it.
Rachel, Maidenhead, UK

The Los Angeles school district switched all of the soda/confectionary with health snacks and drinks in their vending machines. The result was that the takings from the vending machines went down and the children took their own snacks and sodas to school. Children will continue to eat what they like the taste of, and no amount of government mandating will change that.
Neil, Texas

So pizza is now classified as junk food too! Presumably because it is cheap, tasty and nutritious. It seems that "healthy" is now defined as expensive, unpalatable and almost totally devoid of calorific value so that even if you can afford it it's too disgusting to eat.
Bryan, Edinburgh

Dinner numbers are increasing in her school because of the choices available Jim Kirk, London, UK

My wife is a school cook and she would be disgusted at the comments being bandied around today about the quality of school cooking. Her company is sending her on a NVQ for nutrition so the standards can be improved. Dinner numbers are increasing in her school because of the choices available. Guidelines are fine but don't blame the school cook for overweight and badly behaved children
Jim Kirk, London, UK

What's healthy? White bread? That turns to sugar almost instantly. Lettuce? How recently cut? Fruit juice? Better to water it down, it rots the teeth. Meat? The jury's out on that one. I somehow don't think the measures will go far enough - most people really don't know what healthy is.
G Davies, Somerset, England

Life today is based on ease and convenience is it any wonder our children are following our example.
AJ, UK

I never ate school dinners. I was spoilt as a child - my mum always cooked fresh, homemade dinners and anything else tasted disgusting to me. I took sandwiches to school and the only time I ever bought anything to eat at school was a 2p orange that was sold at break time. I learnt how to cook from my mum, yet none of my friends know how to cook and that's because their mothers don't. I think cooking classes are far more important than making canteen food healthy.
Liz, Grenoble, France

Children go to school to be educated not to be fed. It is the parents' responsibility to feed them not the taxpayer!
Richard, London UK

Not being a parent yet, some would argue I should not comment. However, when I was a child, my parents always cooked fresh food, with lots of veg & fruit. I was also well educated in food from around the world. I also enjoyed games, riding my bike & playing with my friends. Nowadays all young children want to is play on play stations, indoors and don't have large groups of friends. The parents are too blame for " fat kids " - nobody else.
Lisa, Cardiff

I'm working in a school in France, where most kids eat every day at school. The meals cost about £1.60 and include a choice of 2 main meals (each meal comprising meat/fish, veg, and some sort of carbs -never chips), a salad, cheese, bread and a dessert (like fruit compot). Unlike my secondary school in Britain, there is never a queue at the sweet machine at break time, the kids eat a decent lunch and don't feel the need to snack. Also unlike my school in Britain there are almost no fat kids.
Catherine, France

Educate children's palates as well as their minds Elaine, Newcastle, UK

When my niece first started school we would ask her what she'd had for dinner and she would answer 'meat ring' or 'chicken elephant'. We wouldn't give her this mechanically retrieved, preservative full rubbish at home and it shouldn't have any place in a school canteen either. Let's see cooks instead of heaters of food in school kitchens and educate children's palates as well as their minds.
Elaine, Newcastle, UK

As a current student, I don't believe that the problem is that youngsters are eating too many unhealthy foods. I think lack of exercise is a problem. I am a Year 11 student, and we only have 1 hour of P.E. per week, whilst physical education in Years 12/13 is optional. This is what the government should be focusing on.
Luke Childs, Wolverhampton, England

I think Luke Childs has hit the nail on the head. One hour of PE each week is unfair and frankly not healthy. I left secondary school 14 years ago and we still had 90 minutes of rugby, hockey or athletics every afternoon. That gave all of us an appetite and we were all very fit. Well said Luke - Ruth Kelly needs to be looking at the entire picture!
Richard, Sussex

If you want school students to eat decent food, then send them to school in Italy. My son, age 6, goes to an Italian state school (full time). He has lunch every day which consists of three courses. On the menu, which must be approved by a nutritionist, are things like pasta with a meat sauce or chopped fresh tomato, gnocchi, pizza (not a bit like what passes for a pizza in England), fish, meat, risotto, fresh salad, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit. What is not on the menu is anything fried or swimming in fat.
But healthy eating starts at home. And it isn't good enough to say it's too expensive or there isn't time. It is somewhat paradoxical that the UK population living on unrefined, rationed food during WW2 had a better, healthier diet than most of today's British school children.
Peter (ex UK), Treviso, Italy

We need to get Italian school catering advisers over here NOW!
Ellen Doran, London, UK

Who says good food is expensive? An apple costs the same as a Mars bar. For the price of a packet of cigarettes you can buy ingredients to make a quick and easy, not to mention nutritious, meal for four. If parents consider 15-20 minutes to prepare a healthy meal is too much trouble perhaps the problem is closer to home than they like to think.
Nige, England

The catering company that runs the school canteen where I work has scuppered some of the schools plans to improve nutrition for the students, by refusing to install mineral water or fruit vending machines. Apparently there is not enough profit in it. I see little likelihood of change. More electioneering.
Steve Jaques, Aylesbury

A talented and clever chef can make fresh, healthful food look as attractive as the traditional stodge fed to British school children. The main problem is that fresh, diverse, nutritious food will cost more than piles of potatoes. Someone has to agree to the higher cost, whether the parents or the education authority.
Joseph Feld MA, London

At my daughter's school next to the canteen is a very large machine selling all the choccy bars and fizzy drinks a teenager could ask for. A nice source of income for the school, but a bit pointless serving healthy food in the canteen with that as an alternative.
Shelley, Sussex, UK

Get rid off vending machines Ash, Nottingham

Get rid off vending machines, have the healthy options available and I guarantee children will take them. Some kids I see don't even get a meal at home. They're living off of canteen burger and chips every weekday.
Ash, Nottingham

Go back to the 50/60's we had decent plain food and far less choice but most of us are still alive and kicking
Mrs S E Holland, Cambridgeshire

You will change nothing with healthy meals in schools until the meals served to children - and adults - outside schools are not driven by market forces and the ever upward need for greater consumer profits. You will change nothing. Children will go outside school for chips or just starve till home time and then hit the corner/chip shop for chocolate, crisps, chips and pies.
Nathan Smith, Uxbridge

I am 14 years old. At my school the canteen serves at least two healthy meals such as pasta, roast dinners, jacket potatoes, cauliflower cheese, curry, chilli. The problem is this: most of the pupils there choose to have unhealthy food like chips, sausages, burgers. It is us, the pupils who need to be told more about eating healthily. I like the healthy options at school and I am sure most other people would too.
Daniel Heath, Stonehouse, England

The issue is not only the food on offer in the school canteen, but the fact that most secondary schools have vending machines, to make profits out of school children. Kids are going to choose crisps and chocolate rather than a meal, so the government needs to ban these and give schools the money to replace them as well as addressing the content of meals on offer.
Fernando, London, UK

This scheme would only work if all the unhealthy options (like the tuck shop) were stopped and only healthy options were available. While healthy eating begins at home, the school canteen isn't a bad place to start.
Lex, Scotland

Get the government to stop selling off playing fields and playground for housing - that might help. Lack of exercise is a major factor. Also, remove salt entirely out of meals.
Neil Small, Scotland

She also knows that fish don't have fingers and chickens don't have nuggets Jennifer, Netherlands

Children only choose to eat chips and pizza if they have been brought up to think these foods are tastier and more exciting than other foods. Most parents consider McDonalds or Pizza Hut a treat, so if a child is offered the burger or the pizza for lunch they will gladly take it as they think it's special food.

My daughter knows what all vegetables are supposed to look like and she is happy to eat all of them. She also knows that fish don't have fingers and chickens don't have nuggets. Maybe it's not a coincidence that I was one of only a handful of pupils in my school that took GCSE Home Economics.
Jennifer, Netherlands (ex-UK)

It would be nice for our children to have school meals. Unfortunately the school they attend does not have any facilities for serving meals - or indeed the space, having now used the facilities as classrooms. This leaves parents with the job of putting together lunchboxes of sandwiches and anything else that can be prepared the night before. So in our case whatever the government say on the school meals issue is a waste of time.
Steve, West Sussex

How sad it is, to see some people in this debate use the excuse that good nutritious food is too expensive, and state that some parents don't have time to prepare good food! I would have thought that preparing a decent family meal should be a priority in the evening, above parents and children's hobbies etc and as for it being more expensive, it is far cheaper to buy fresh vegetables etc than any processed or microwavable rubbish!
Steph, Lincs

The catering companies should be criticised not the schools and not the cooks Gail Hanlon, Leeds, Yorkshire

I work at a primary school as a cook. The school is doing everything it can to educate children on healthy eating, but as usual the school meals are cheap and are based on a budget. I and the school do not have a say on the meals served, the catering company do everything from the menus to what choice there is for the children. Maybe the catering companies should be criticised instead of the schools and the cooks.
Gail Hanlon, Leeds, Yorkshire

If you give them an option most children will go for the unhealthiest one. I had pizza and chips at school as well but can't remember many overweight children. The difference is how much exercise they have now - my children are kept in at break times if has been raining, and are not allowed to play rough games such as football and chase, thanks to the political correctness and litigation fears that now grip our public institutions.
Matt Smith, Cardiff, S Glamorgan

At my daughter's school she informs me that the most popular meal at lunchtime is cheese & chips - basically a plate of chips with melted cheese on top. But what I find alarming is the number of kids I see walking to school at 8.30 munching on crisps and sweets and slurping carbonated drinks as their breakfast. Not only is this unhealthy but I shudder to think what the first class of the day is like with all those kids on a processed sugar rush!
Huw, York

I work in a school kitchen and we try to sell healthy meals but the children are allowed to go out at lunchtime, so they go to the burger van, and ice cream van or chip shop to buy their rubbish. We can't win, we are always being criticised but given no additional funding to subsidise school meals
Collins, Darlington

I think that children need a combination of regular exercise and a healthy balanced diet. So called bad foods are only unhealthy if eaten to excess. School dinners should be chosen for their nutritional value not the amount it costs to make them. How about healthier options such as sweet potato chips that are oven cooked not deep fried. All it takes is some imagination.
Fran, Winchester, UK

If the parents made an effort about giving their children the correct nutrition then they may be a bit wiser when choosing lunch Emma Hallett, Chelmsford, Essex

I think that it needs to start at home. If the parents made an effort about giving their children the correct nutrition then they may be a bit wiser when choosing lunch! But I feel that it needs to go back to "that's what your having, eat it" if they were that hungry they would eat it. People are fussing all the time about choices and freedom, when we actually need people to start sorting things out. People have too many choices in life, let alone kids. So get back the good old slop and sort them out and stop these people moaning!
Emma Hallett, Chelmsford, Essex

Ruth Kelly can say what she wants but for a lot of children it's too late by the time schools have influence over what's being eaten. Expectation and tastes are set at home for the 4-5 years prior to going to school. School dinners should be "healthy" but having one such meal a day at school does not relieve parents of their responsibilities. Another suggestion would be education in the classroom about food, health and the need for exercise!
Clive, Woking

The problem lies in schools being forced to have contractors supply the meal Lynn, Herts, UK

The kids aren't daft they know what is and isn't good for them. The problem lies in schools being forced to have contractors supply the meal, whose only priority is profit. The only way they apparently can achieve profit is by selling poor quality rubbish.
Lynn, Herts, UK

I ate sausages, burgers, and chips with everything at school when I had chance. But I also took exercise - despite not being spectacularly fit, we still played rugby, hockey, basketball, we got sent on cross-country runs and chased each other around the playground. Except in very few medical cases, weight gain is simply caused by calorific intake being higher than calorific consumption, so the answer is to eat less or exercise more. In case any dim-witted parents didn't catch on yet, playing on the PlayStation doesn't count as exercise.
Jonny, England

No, no, this is all wrong. I thought school meals were deliberately unhealthy to solve the impending pension crisis, by ensuring that the next generation doesn't live to retirement age.
Adam, London, UK

The so called healthy food at school is a joke. A soggy, stale ham salad roll at senior school costs over £2, and the net cost is probably about 5p. The chips cost under £1. What is my daughter going to eat? She is underweight and is nicknamed rabbit because she eats everyone else's salad for them.
Jojo, South London

There's no point in making healthy food if it's not edible, Linda, UK

When I was a child in the late 60s and early 70s the school dinners were so disgusting I never ate them and dived for the biscuit tin the moment I was home through the door. Life and my diet improved when we were allowed to take our own packed lunches. There's no point in making healthy food if it's not edible, so let's hope they get it right.
Linda, UK

It's all well and good having healthier meals introduced in schools but children also need to be given healthier options in the home. However, not everyone can afford to feed their kids on healthy food as a lot of it is much more expensive than the non-healthy options. Also, most parents struggle to find the time to prepare healthy meals.
JB, UK

Why have healthy foods in the canteens then have a sweet vending machine in there too?! This government has removed so much proper funding from schools they are forced to scrap for profits made from fizzy drink sales. If the government hadn't sold off so many playing fields maybe kids might exercise as well, thus reducing the effects of unhealthy food.
Dave, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

People need to realise that it isn't the burgers, chips, and pizzas that are making kids overweight! It is the chronic lack of exercise that we are seeing in young people these days. Perhaps if they spent less time in bed, watching the TV, playing on games consoles and computers, and doing very little, then we would see a reduction in the number of overweight and obese children.
Andy, Leeds, UK

It's simple, don't give kids a choice Stephen, Cambridge

What is there to consult about? Everybody knows what kids should and shouldn't be allowed eat. It's simple, don't give kids a choice and just give them healthy good cooked meals - what is there to discuss.
Stephen, Cambridge

I seem to remember watching a reality TV programme, where they 'went back to the 1950s at school. They said obesity was 1% or less, and attributed it to one hour a day of exercise via P.E. Think how the benefits of daily exercise would help the NHS when kids hit 50.
Oliver, UK

Try getting the kids to do some exercise instead of nitpicking about food.
Robert Sutton, Halifax, England

School meals will remain poor so long as the contract to provide them is awarded on costs Mark Blackman, London

Kelly can announce as many regulations as she wants, but school meals will remain poor so long as the contract to provide them is awarded on costs. None of the primary schools where I live have a kitchen anymore - meals are delivered in the morning and simply kept warm so the food is invariably disgusting by dinner time. Of course, those children whose parents are rich enough to buy their education have access to nutritional and appetising meals at their private schools.
Mark Blackman, London

Parents, and only parents, are to blame for the state of their children. Feed them properly at home. There should be no ready meals, chips, take-aways, etc. Home cooked meals, with fresh veg and fruit, combined with regular exercise will sort them out. How about making the little darlings walk to and from school? That would be a start.
Charles, London

Yet another Thatcher policy is shown to be failing! For those with short memories the school dinner system was destroyed on the altar of 'market forces' by Mrs Thatcher and co. We have now reared a generation of poorly fed and poorly educated people. At one time school meals were part of the whole picture of education, not just a method for someone to get rich quick.
Barry P, Havant England

It's all about educating the child and doing it at home as well as school Lianne, Cannock, UK

It's all about educating the child and doing it at home as well as school. I personally eat really healthily and I used to love the fast food places. Now because my body is used to good foods I find a carton of fries from these places taste like cardboard and my body doesn't thank me for having them. I would much rather have healthy food. It's the same for kids. They eat what they're used to, get them used to the good stuff and they'll be happy and their whole being will be better.
Lianne, Cannock, UK

I remember when I was at school about 7 years ago we could only get burgers and chips on a Friday as a treat. Monday to Thursday we were offered healthier alternatives. Most people seemed happy with this arrangement.
Neil, Stevenage

Guidelines mean nothing when most school dinners are served by "PFI contract service companies" where the bottom line is profit. They will ignore guidelines or buy cheap inferior meat. The only way to improve school meals is up government funding and give free meals to all school children paid for by the taxpayer
Vish, UK

How about employing school "cooks" rather than school "microwave and deep fat fryer operators"?
Ian, UK

It is all good and well trying to introduce healthier school meals, however, parents need to take the first step by educating their children about eating healthily. If you do not introduce healthy variety at home, your child will end up with a rather limited palate and any attempt by schools will end up in failure. It is time parents started taking responsibility for their children instead of blaming schools, the government and food manufacturers.
Chantel, Clevedon, UK

It's not so much what they eat as how much they eat Stephen, Darlington

Adding more healthy food, will give children a choice of eating better and some may take the option, but most will still go for what tastes best and looks best. Salads aren't considered cool food, but making healthy burgers and pizzas will get the kids eating healthily. I can't see much change to obesity either, as it's not so much what they eat as how much they eat, and if they eat sweets at break and if they aren't getting exercise to burn it all off. I personally don't eat healthy but I'm not obese as I don't spend all day eating junk and get just about enough exercise.
Stephen, Darlington

No. The school meals I ate in the 1950s and 1960s were the healthiest this country's children have ever eaten. But there is no chance at all that they will ever be revived. Left to their own devices children will invariably choose rubbish. Some will eat more sensibly as they grow older but some people just never grow up. The evidence is there for all to see waddling down every high street in the land.
John M Johnson, U.K.

School dinners in the 50s and 60s contained much more fat and salt than today's but obesity among children was far lower. I still remain very sceptical that it is school dinners making children fat.
John Smith, Dundee

Why this focus on tempting children away from burgers & chips? As a child, I had a huge appetite and would eat just about anything available. If I had a choice I ate chips but if they weren't there, I ate everything else instead. Just take them off the menu.
Kathy, UK

The easiest and most straight forward way to get our kids off this type of food is not to serve it in the first place!
Chris Green, Hagley, Worcs England

Why on earth will it help? The kids will still eat what they want - and what they want to eat is dictated to them by all the celebrity TV and other media ads they get rammed down their throat - just accept it, we have lost this generation of kids to obesity already! Time to plan for the next one.
Pete, Filey, UK

School dinners should be healthy and free to all pupils. If this were the case it would encourage kids to not go elsewhere as they would clearly be wasting what little money they have when they can get food for nothing. The cost would be covered by the huge savings we would make in future NHS appointments and treatments, and we would also be encouraging healthy eating at an early stage amongst children.
Alan, Fife

If Labour really wanted to make a difference, they made school dinners compulsory, and insist that they only serve nutritious meals. But they are all talk as usual...
James Murphy, Dorset, UK

My school dinner favourites were always puddings: jam roly poly, spotted dick, treacle tart Andrew R, Brackenll, UK

My school dinner favourites were always puddings: jam roly poly, spotted dick, treacle tart, cornflake cake, chocolate sponges - all with custards. I remember yellow custard, chocolate custard and even pink custard. However, I wasn't fat and I am far from obese and very healthy now - perhaps because my childhood games were riding BMXs, playing in the woods, running outside with friends, making dens, going on adventures but never Playstation, cable TV, DVDs and the internet! Food for thought?
Andrew R, Brackenll, UK

I was recently invited to my son's school to join him at lunch. I was astounded by the quality of the food there - a lamb roast, salmon fishcakes and lots of vegetables. The puddings were fresh fruit, yoghurts and the typical chocolate concrete. I think the standards were high, however, I don't agree with the children having a choice of meals. My son is four and cannot really decide what he should go for. I never had a choice of meals and I think that should be standard for every school. We just ate what was put in front of us.
Lisa, Birmingham

It will help but then most parents lack basic cooking skills so I think the problem will continue at home. Too many rely on takeaways, ready meals and the deep-fat fryer to provide a family meal. Kids need to learn by example!
Steve, Chertsey, Surrey

My seven year old is vegetarian and is unable to have school dinners because there is so little choice Joanne Shemmans, Birmingham

My seven year old is vegetarian and is unable to have school dinners because there is so little choice- at least in his sandwich box I can limit the amount of salt and fat he is eating. He is always encouraged to eat healthily at home but if there are chips on the menu he will choose them like most children. It's no good just offering "alternatives", what schools need to do is remove high fat/sugar/salt options from the menu altogether so that children will not be tempted by them, and also provide more consistent education about healthier lifestyle choices. For example, health advisors are constantly supporting the benefits of a vegetarian diet, yet during school health education my son is constantly being nagged about the benefits of meat eating! How is this consistent?
Joanne Shemmans, Birmingham, UK

It is a move in the right direction for those kids taking school meals provided they understand the consequences of poor diet. However I still expect to see long queues of kids who don't take school meals outside the chip shop / fast food places. When you are under a time constraint these places are quick and convenient. When all your mates are doing it is the "no brainer".
Andy D, Oxford, UK

If a child ate healthily at home they would choose a healthy option at school M, UK

At the end of the day what good is overhauling school meals when as soon as a child gets home they eat rubbish and the parents do nothing to stop them? If a child ate healthily at home they would choose a healthy option at school. It's the parents fault not the schools.
M, UK

Yet another spectacular waste of taxpayers' money by an inept government. Guidelines were in place in the early 80s when I was in school - everything had "traffic lights" so a burger had a red spot and salad had a green spot. No prizes for guessing that most of the kids still went for the red-spot items for the simple reason they tasted better. Getting kids to eat healthy food takes more than putting it in front of them - it has to taste good as well. Schools work with extremely limited budgets and where a cheap burger can be made to taste better with a few additives the same cannot be said for a wilted salad.
John B, UK

No it will not. People still fill out fast-food outlets, even though it is widely known that the quality of their food is abysmal. Offer children fruit versus beef burger and chips and they will eat beef burger and chips. In addition to diet the other approach to counter obesity - should children not be exercising, such as daily P.E?
Oliver, UK

The school where my wife is an assistant cook they have 5 to 7 choices every day. Its the healthy food they leave. I think it's parents who need educating.
Colin Farley, Middlesbrough

It's a shame that catering companies are pandering to childish appetites Louise Stanley, Reading, UK

School dinners form an important part of a child's diet. School dinners at my schools were not that bad, and certainly only rarely did we see burgers. It's a shame that catering companies are pandering to childish appetites. It is only sensible that catering companies should strive to improve nutrition - and taste. I just hope it can be done without more interfering regulations from central government, which shouldn't really get involved in saying what people can, can't, should and shouldn't eat.
Louise Stanley, Reading, UK

Tempt children away from burger, pizza and chips? Just don't provide them as an option in the first place. Children also enjoy other options such as rice, couscous, potatoes with pasta, chilli, etc.
Alan, Glasgow, Scotland