The fear that the enforcement of the new nutrient standards could lead to restricted menus and unappealing food was behind the recent LACA initiative to hold a School Meals Summit.

At the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London MPs, head teachers, parents, governors and local authority caterers gathered to discuss concerns about the inflexibility of the standards and the rush to bring them into secondary schools by September.

Local Authority Caterers' Association (LACA) chairman Neil Porter said a survey of his members showed many were that compliant menus will turn off pupils, who will simply then go off site and buy a burger.

"Is there any benefit in feeding fewer students an ideal meal?" he asked.

Figures from a survey of LACA members show that one third are confident they will be compliant with the new standards in time.

But that means two thirds are saying only that they may be, and within that figure nearly 17% said they definitely would not be.

He said members also worried about the effect the new standards will have on meal uptake numbers.

Nearly 80% forecast a drop in sales in September and the rest hope that meal uptake will stay roughly the same.

"Nobody who responded saw an increase on the number of meals served," he said.

While caterers had been fairly relaxed about the introduction of the new standards into primary schools in 2008, they believe the situation in secondaries will be very different.

The reason is that younger children are more open to try new tastes, have to stay on site, are used limited mealtime choice and do not have discretionary income to spend on the way to school.

"None of those hold true for many secondary school pupils."

Porter added: "We share the same agenda – the health and well-being of future generations.

"But caterers have to balance the books, we have to return figures that are acceptable to local authorities and we have to look after the staff who work in the service.

"Those are very difficult to achieve if we have to micro-manage nutrient compliant menus and produce food that pupils will want to eat."

Alongside the debate over the standards themselves, caterers also have major concerns over on-site policies in many schools, short lunch breaks and long queues.

"Where the whole-school approach does exist then the nutrient standards can be made to work – but this is only happening in a few schools. What about the rest where the needed support of head teachers and parents is missing?"

He offered a suggestion on behalf of LACA about how the new standards might be better introduced.

"Why not offer new year 7 students an extra 20 minutes for lunch for the whole of the school year and then carry that with them through their school life.

"That way we build on the greater acceptance of the new standards among primary schoolchildren and build up the lunch break again."

And if LACA members' fears come true and students simply walk away from the school meals service in significant numbers in September?

Porter quoted survey figures showing nearly 50% saw the drop in revenue would force them to increase prices, another 20% said it will have an impact on the quality of service provided and nearly 30% worried it might spark the closure of the service altogether.

Words: David Foad

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