School bans home-made mince pies

Councillor Peter Foley says the ban encourages "picky" eaters

A school has banned pupils from taking home-made cakes and biscuits such as mince pies to its Christmas fair.

Mynydd Cynffig junior school in Kenfig Hill, Bridgend, is reported to have acted on health and safety grounds.

Head teacher Neil Davies told a local newspaper there was a danger of illness and he had received no complaints.

But Pete Foley, the councillor in charge of education in the area, called it an over-reaction and children should be urged to eat home-made food.

Mr Davies told the Glamorgan Gazette: "There is a risk of someone becoming ill from something home-made.

Children are going to get a complex that anything that comes out of a packet is better for them or become nervous about what they eat Councillor Peter Foley

"I don't know what the ingredients are, and there are allergies, and because of things like that we made a decision as a school."

But Mr Foley said: "We should be encouraging people to eat home-made family cooking.

"Children are going to get a complex that anything that comes out of a packet is better for them or become nervous about what they eat.

'Real headache'

"I think children who are picky with food are a real headache and there are already enough negative images out there of size zero models."

"I'm not saying the head teacher is wrong, I'm just saying I wouldn't have done that."

Mr Foley said he believed that head teachers in the area had become "twitchy" over issues of contaminated food, such as the one that led to an E.coli outbreak in the area in 2005, in which a five-year-old boy died.

At the time of the outbreak, health officials banned the sale of home-made goods, however that advice was withdrawn after the all clear was given.

"I think they have over-reacted on this occasion," added Mr Foley.

"Quite simply the E.coli outbreak started in a commercial premises, not in a child's family home. That's a big difference."