LACA hosts 3 insightful workshop sessions at Main Event
Jan Parnell and Olivia Oakley from the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation spoke about the organisation’s new Allergy School resources that have been launched to help train all school staff and children about allergen control.
Jan said the free resources were vitally important to helping children be safe at school and freeing their parents from worrying about their welfare while they are there. She pointed out nearly 70% of schools lack an allergen policy yet 30% of first-time anaphylactic reactions happen at school.
Olivia talked about how the Allergen School training resources, fronted by puppet character Arlo the Armadillo, included self-assessment tests, training plans, lesson materials and videos all designed to help. They both urged caterers to persuade their schools to register with the scheme and start taking advantage of the free resources.
Meanwhile, former LACA chair Stephen Forster, who has led LACA efforts on allergen control explained how he was now looking to get the school meals body to address the issue of UPF’s.
He said there was a lot of media coverage about the potential harms of consuming too many over-processed foods, and warned that schools would find themselves in the ‘firing line’ over them sooner or later.
“What percentage of items on your menus are UPF’s? Can we answer that question if challenged?” He said he plans to start a working group in September, which would include experts in nutrition, to look at developing some common guidance principles around UPF’s.
This would include a UPF Menu Assessment process to look at how many core ingredients on school menus are UPF’s as well as drawing up some best practice guidance and case studies to share.
The final workshop was titled ‘LACA Ask the Experts’ and involved vice chair elect Brad Pearce, board members Bryan Lygate and Louise Kerton as well as vice chair Michael Hales who chaired the session.
Responding to a question about if inflation would come down soon, Bryan said he hoped inflation would start to level off by the end of the year and he encouraged school caterers to work with their suppliers.
Louise encouraged school caterers to slowly replace ultra-processed foods until the new and more nutritious food becomes the norm for children. This is to ensure that children continue to be fed as for some it is their only meal of the day.
Brad spoke about the need for more equal school meals funding with England at £2.61 per meal as of September 2025 still lagging behind Wales (£3.20) and Scotland (£3.33). He noted the real cost of a school meal, which also includes labour costs, was 90p to £1 more than they funding they receive in England.
The three panellists agreed it was good that the Government has expanded free school meals eligibility but they all highlighted the logistical problems and a lack of funding as key challenges school caterers will face.
On day two of the LACA Main Event delegates will hear from a range of speakers including Ella Colley, Professor Don Bundy and Dr Sara Long, Charlie Hodson, Myles Bremner and Victoria Humphries. The keynote speaker is food futurologist Dr Morgaine Gaye who will discuss future food trends.