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School food

Introduction

Welcome to the School Food pages of the website. Here you will find lots of information about food served at schools in Calderdale. In addition, these pages will provide information about the importance of healthy eating for children and young people.

The Government introduced new standards for school food in 2006. Nutritional standards were introduced in 2001.

What did these standards mean for school lunches?

The school food standards meant that healthy, good quality food became available to all school children, and lower quality foods with little benefit to health was restricted.

The National Healthy Schools Programme was promoting healthy food in Calderdale for a number of years. Many schools had been providing high quality, good value for money school lunches for a long time. These schools did not have to make any changes to their school lunches. However, some schools had to make big changes to their menus to meet the standards.

Summary of the food-based standards for school lunches introduced in September 2006

These healthier products should be on the menu:

• More fruit and vegetables.
• More oily fish.
• Bread available every day.
• Free fresh drinking water.
• Healthier drinks.

These foods were restricted or no longer allowed:

• No confectionery such as chocolate and sweets.
• No savoury snacks such as crisps.
• No salt. Condiments are restricted. Condiments such as ketchup and mayonnaise should only be available in sachets or individual portions of not more than 10g or one teaspoonful.
• Deep-fried products are restricted.

Manufactured meat products are restricted.

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