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Software shows school meals pass the taste test 2 April 2011 A simple piece of software has allowed the School Meals Service to confirm for the first time that primary school dinners meet recognised nutritional standards. School meals staff are using the computer software to analyse the exact ingredients of their menus against standards set down by the UK Government and found the midday meal is meeting all 14 measurements.  More than half a million school meals are served to primary school children in the Island each year and take up is 5 per cent up on last year and at a record high. More than 3,000 meals are served in primary schools each day. The UK standards, which arose from Jamie Oliver’s revolution in school kitchens, have been adopted voluntarily by the Department of Education and Children’s School Meals Service and it is ahead of many areas of the UK in meeting them. Chris Wilson, Schools Catering Manager, says it’s well established that a nutritional meal can boost children’s ability to concentrate, learn and perform well while a bad diet can lead to lead to health problems, dental decay and issues of self-esteem. A school meal should provide at least 30 per cent of a child’s daily nutrients. ‘Parents all want the best for their children, whether it’s to be the brightest, the fastest, the best, and if you want children to attain the best they can attain, you have to make sure they are properly nourished,’ Chris said. In the past, Chris worked laboriously on spreadsheets to measure the nutritional content of meals. Now he is able to input the precise ingredients of the varied menus on offer 38 weeks of the year. This has confirmed menus meet minimum standards for properties such as protein, zinc, iron and vitamins and don’t exceed maximum standards for bad properties such as salt, sugar and fat. Children are offered choices each day and the percentage take-up is also factored in, said Chris. ‘Traditionally the last child in the queue wouldn’t get what he wanted but now children pre-select their meal so the child at the end of the queue gets what he wants. We get feedback from the kitchens over who is choosing what and this is fed back into the system so the data isn’t skewed if some dishes prove more popular than others.’ Parents will, via schools, this week receive a leaflet explaining the latest development and setting out plans to use even more good-quality local produce as well as listing the menus for the summer term, which will run on a four-week cycle instead of a three-week cycle, like they have done, allowing children even more variety in what they eat. ‘Children love sausages, for example, but they are relatively high in salt so featuring them on menus just once every four weeks means the effects can be watered down and this give me more opportunity to accommodate other foods that may appeal to them just as much and be better for them,’ Chris explained. Children develop a taste for their favourite foods that can stay with them for life, so Chris and his 84-strong team of school meals staff, encourage children to try dishes they might be wary of without spoiling the enjoyment of eating. ‘It’s vital children enjoy their food and the whole mealtime experience,’ said Chris, ‘so we try to stretch the boundaries without putting them off eating. We are lucky that we have huge experience out there with our catering staff, who will coax children into trying new things and encourage them rather than frighten them.’ Chris said that with take-up of school meals at an all-time high and parents taking more interest than ever in what their children eat, it’s a milestone to be able to demonstrate that school meals meet recognised standards. ‘I want to give parents the confidence that what we are doing is right and that we can demonstrate it,’ he said. ‘We have always worked towards these standards and we knew we were broadly achieving them in the past but now we can be confident we are.’ To find out more about the school meals service, visit http://www.gov.im/education/support/smcs/ or ring 686278. To find out more about the UK nutritional standards, visit the School Food Trust website on http://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/the-standards Photo: The salad bar at Andreas Primary School More stories >>>
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