Warwickshire school dinners are first to be put to the test...
...and they got top marks too!
In a UK first, school dinners served to Warwickshire pupils have been given a resounding thumbs up in tests conducted by Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service, in partnership with Warwickshire County Caterers Service.
Warwickshire Trading Standards are the first local authority service in the UK to conduct comprehensive nutritional tests on school dinners and compare their results against the national standard.
UK standards for school dinners were introduced following a high profile campaign led by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. Now there is clear and concise guidelines for what an average hot, cold or pre-packed school lunch should provide.
Fruit, vegetables and oily fish are in and deep-fried foods and meat products are restricted – sweets and confectionary are banned altogether. Each meal should also contain a balance of nutrients such as carbohydrate, protein, fibre and vitamin C to give growing children the energy they need.
Trading Standards Officers visited two primary schools (in Stratford upon Avon and Nuneaton) and sampled 30 separate meals over 3 weeks. A wide variety of meal choices were tested including baked Alaskan salmon, quorn korma, creamed potatoes, fish and frozen vegetables, fruit jelly, chocolate treacle sponge, milk and fruit juice.
The test results revealed that the school menus fared well when measured against the standard and showed that the County Catering Service was providing a high standard of service.
Warwickshire County Councillor Richard Hobbs, Portfolio Holder for Community Protection added:
“This project is a wonderful example of how County Council Departments are working together to improve the services we provide and deliver better, healthier and more nutritious meals for our school children.”
Warwickshire County Councillor Martin Heatley, Portfolio Holder for Resources added: "Warwickshire County Caterers are committed to providing nutritious, delicious school meals in a fun environment and the results of this survey, a UK first, are particularly pleasing because they indicate that school meals in Warwickshire are of the high standard our customers expect.
"We were very pleased to work in partnership with Warwickshire Trading Standards on this most worthwhile project, the findings of which, are now being used to build on the good work already undertaken."
Warwickshire’s County Catering Service will now look at how they can use the finding of the survey report to iron out the few variations from the standard it highlighted. Changes made to menus and portion sizes will then be introduced when the new school meals menus are launched in November.