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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.

What we are doing

Calderdale Council and Calderdale Primary Care Trust are working together to support schools and catering providers in the implementation of the Government’s standards for school food.

The Government is gradually introducing new standards for school food. Nutritional standards were introduced in 2001. Further food-based standards were introduced in September 2006 and more standards will be introduced in the next few years.

What do the new standards mean for school lunches?

The new school food standards will mean that healthy, good quality food will be available to all schoolchildren, and lower quality foods with little benefit to health will be restricted.

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

Summary of the new 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 are restricted or no longer allowed:

• No confectionary 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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