Food and nutritional standards

We are pleased to tell you that, in advance of the September 2008 deadline, primary lunch menus are fully compliant with the nutrient standards as published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the School Food Trust. This has not been easy to achieve and a lot of hard work has taken place with the development of menus, recipes and trials within school kitchens to assess pupil and staff reaction to the choices.

It is also important to point out that the calculation of nutrient standards and compliance includes all food and drink provided at lunch time (except extra bread) across the whole three week menu cycle and not to an individual meal or child. To meet the standards, some food items and ingredients have had to be changed or their use limited. We are constantly looking at recipes and innovative ways in which we can further develop and promote our menus within the standards.

We firmly believe that all pupils should be able to have a nutritionally balanced and healthy diet. The changes we have made to the menus and recipes as well as the continued equipment replacement programme and improvements to the kitchen infrastructure, demonstrate and support this.

Guides from the School Food Trust

Copies of the following school food trust guides may be downloaded from the documents table below:

• new food-based standards for school lunches (revised for September 2007)
• new food-based standards for all school food other than school lunches (September 2007)
• new school food standards and healthier packed lunches – a guide for parents

The school food trust guide to food-based and nutrient-based standards for school lunches (2008) can be downloaded from the School Food Trust website.

Documents

To view these documents you might need to download some software. Visit our downloads page for more information.

	School Food Trust - 'in season' wall chart - wall chart. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 1.8MB
	School Food Trust guide (new food-based standards for school lunches) - the new food-based standards for school lunches (revised for September 2007). File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 1MB
	School Food Trust guide (new food-based standards for all school food other than school lunches) - the new food-based standards for all school food other than school lunches. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 875.2KB
	School Food Trust guide (new school food standards and healthier packed lunches) - new school food standards and healthier packed lunches - a guide for parents. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 1.4MB