School Meals: New Crackdown On Fried Food And Unhealthy Dishes

School Meals: New Crackdown On Fried Food And Unhealthy Dishes
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Justin Leighton / Alamy

School meals will have to include at least one portion of vegetables a day - and no more than two portions of fried food each week as part of a government crackdown on unhealthy eating.

Call us naïve, but isn't this already happening anyway? And if not, why not?

The new rules are to be introduced from January 2015, but it begs the question: "What junk are our kids being allowed to eat right now?"

It's no wonder many parents prefer to send their children to school with a packed lunch - at least they can have some influence over their kids' diets.

The new regulations will force schools to provide a choice of fruit and vegetables and will give school cooks more 'flexibility' on how they incorporate healthy options into meals.

However, one surprising breakthrough in the new rules is that all state pupils will be offered free milk – reversing 'milk snatcher' Margaret Thatcher's policy of 25 years ago.

The new school food regulations include:

One or more portions of vegetables or salad as an accompaniment every day.

At least three different fruits and three different vegetables each week.

An emphasis on wholegrain foods in place of refined carbohydrates.

An emphasis on making water the drink of choice.

• Limiting fruit juice portions to quarter pints (150ml).

• Restricting the amount of added sugars or honey in other drinks to 523FFEB00&videoControlDisplayColor=Slideshow-163420%