The infamous Turkey Twizzler may have disappeared from the school canteen, but children who eat packed lunches are still eating junk food – supplied by their parents – according to new research published today.
British children eat 5.5bn packed lunches each year, but research from the University of Leeds shows that only 1% of their lunchboxes meet the tough nutritional standards that have been set for their classmates on school meals. The findings were described as "appalling" by children's health campaigners, who want all children to be given free, nutritious school meals.
About half of all children in England take a packed lunch to school. In the first study of its kind, the Leeds research team, commissioned by the government's food watchdog, the Food Standards Agency, found that 82% of their lunchboxes contained foods high in saturated fat, salt and sugar, with items chosen by parents including crisps, sweets and biscuits. Only one in five packed lunches contained any vegetables or salad and about half included an item of fruit – yet in the overwhelming majority of cases, even these fell well below the standards demanded of school dinners.
The first statutory school meal standards were introduced in 2006 due to growing evidence linking poor health in adults with obesity or poor diet in childhood. They limit the amount of foods high in salt, sugar and fats that can be served and stipulate that school meals must provide a third of the daily requirement of every nutrient for health. And although the schools watchdog, Ofsted, says schools must have a policy on packed lunches, there is no legislative imperative for them to comply with the same nutritional standards that are applied in the canteen.
Fewer than half of children's packed lunches met the government's 2008 nutrient standards, including levels of vitamin A, folate, iron and zinc. On average, girls tended to be given more healthy foodstuffs than boys, and children at schools with fewer pupils eligible for free school meals had healthier packed lunches. Overall, the food least likely to be eaten when provided was fruit, while that most likely to be eaten was confectionery.
The research is published online today, ahead of publication in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. It was led by Charlotte Evans of the Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics, who said: "The lack of equivalent food standards for packed lunches gives cause for concern that they will continue to lag behind the nutritional quality of school meals."
Even without legislation, there is plenty that schools, parents and manufacturers can do to improve the situation. Evans went on: "Our research has shown that some small steps in the right direction would make a big difference. Even if schools had a policy to provide water for children eating packed lunches, this would significantly reduce their sugar intake from sweetened drinks.
"It is important that schools support health-promotion programmes, and strategies are in place to help parents meet nutritional standards by encouraging them to include healthy foods such as protein-rich sandwiches and fruit and vegetables. Simply concentrating on restricting the junk content of lunchboxes can be counter-productive – children at schools where crisps are restricted, for example, end up with lunchboxes containing more confectionery."
Evans added: "We also need food manufacturers to offer better choices than the traditional high-salt, high-sugar products that busy families rely on to fill the school lunchbox on a daily basis."
Professor Janet Cade, head of the Nutritional Epidemiology Group at Leeds, added: "While we absolutely understand that many children prefer to take packed lunches to school, it is clear that they are not getting the same benefit from their midday meal as their classmates on school dinners. The poor quality of these meals could have serious implications for levels of childhood obesity and its long-term consequences."
The Children's Food Campaign coordinator, Jackie Schneider, commented: "Although these findings are appalling, we are not surprised. A whole industry has grown up around producing foods for lunchboxes, which can contain high levels of salt, fat or sugar. Parents are often misled by marketing for these lunchbox products, which make health claims like 'high in vitamins' but also turn out to be high in salt, fat or sugar as well."
Schneider concluded: "There is now an even stronger case for giving all children a free healthy school meal, which really will start to change our food culture."