School Meals Competition
Sarah Edwards, Community Development Assistant, explained along with Terri Bonham, Trading Standards Officer and Ian Marriott Trading Standards Team Leader, how a school meal nutrition project lead to the Oxfordshire Best School Meals Competition, which has now been running for the past three years.
Summary
In 2001 the new standard for school meals came into force; Education (Nutritional Standards for School Lunches) (England) Regulations 2000, and Trainee Trading Standards Officer, Terri Bonham decided to look at its impact upon local school meals as part of her final dissertation for her Trading Standards qualification. The results of this survey lead onto Sarah Edwards, the Community Development Assistant, working more closely with the County’s school meal suppliers and setting up a best school meal competition, whereby pupils in schools across the county are encouraged to comment on their school meals.
Project Name: Healthier School Meals
Project Start Date: 2001
Project Location Type: Rural and city
Project Origins and original aims/Objectives and purpose of the project:
The project began as a result of the new standard for school meals being implemented and the question Trainee Trading Standards Officer, Terri Bonham asked – what will its impact be upon local school meals?
- The objectives of the school meal nutrition survey were to:
- Raise awareness of the new standard
- Check for compliance against the new standard
- Work with the school meal suppliers to improve nutrition standards where problems were discovered
- Comment on the strength of the new standard
- The objectives of the Best School Meals competition were to:
- Encourage uptake of school meals
- Raise the standards of school meals
- Take on board comments by the pupils
Organisations Involved:
1.Oxfordshire Trading Standards Service
2.Worcestershire Scientific Services
3.Cherwell Vale Primary Care Trust Community Dietician
4.County Facilities Management – Oxfordshire County Council
Target Audience:
Governors of schools, catering suppliers, and pupils.
Methodology:
In 2001 Oxfordshire worked with Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Shropshire on a Crossing the Boundaries Project – School Meals Survey. To assist officers when visiting schools check sheets were devised based on the new standard and food officers in Oxfordshire visited 20 schools to see if they were meeting the criteria. Examples of what the officers were looking for included checking if fruit and vegetables were being served daily, and if fish was on the menu every week. In addition to this officers also looked closely at food labelling, and took samples of products where deemed necessary. School meals were also taken to check whether they met nutritional guidelines set by the Caroline
Walker Trust. (See link below for the final report – appendix 1). The community dietician was also able to visit with the food officer in some cases to offer her support and guidance.
A completed check sheet outlining the results of each school was left with the schools and also where appropriate passed onto the County’s main school meal provider – County Facilities Management who are part of the Education directorate of Oxfordshire County Council.
For the second survey, in 2003/04, over half of all schools in the County were visited, which took two officers working full time for 3 months to complete, and again the community dietician was able to assist on some visits. In addition to using check sheets, which were based on the Department of Education and Skills guidelines http://www.dfes.gov.uk/schoollunches/default.shtml, (see appendix 2a, 2b) and using the guidance notice which were specifically devised (see appendix 3) officers were looking at labelling and taking some school meals away for nutritional analysis, other samples were also taken – for example fish fingers, to check whether the amount of fish being offered was meeting the standard. In some instances the fish fingers that were the only option did not always have a sufficient amount of fish in to meet the criteria. Also fruit was analysed to check the vitamin content, and tuna fish to check the levels of mercury in comparison to supermarket tuna.
The results of the visits were left with each school and in addition where the County Facilities Management supplied schools with meals the results were passed onto them for further action.
As a result of these visits schools are now part of the routine visit programme for trading standards. According to the LACORS risk assessment they are considered as "low" risk premises however officers at Oxfordshire TSD are intending to visit all schools in the County over the next 3 years to check that compliance with the standard is getting better and that all schools are aware of it, especially those who are not using outside contractors. (Please see attached for copy of the report – appendix 4)
Funding:
All costs have been financed by the Trading Standards Department.
Recruitment:
The visits to the schools need to be made by a qualified food officer and preferably assisted by the community dietician. If the community dietician is not available then the checklists being used should incorporate information about nutrition, which have had input from a qualified dietician.
For the Best School Meals Competition, details of which are listed below, it is not necessary to have food enforcement staff to co-ordinate the competition, however access to food officers is useful, especially when comparing the results of the competition with the results of the food standards visits.
Activities/Sessions:
In addition to the work being carried out by Terri and other food enforcement staff Sarah, Community Development Assistant, who works within Trading Standards has been working with the County catering suppliers, to help address the falling numbers of pupils choosing to have school meals and also raise awareness of the importance of healthy eating.
For the past 3 years Sarah, working with the marketing officer from County Facilities Management have been running the "Best School Meals Competition".
- In January 3 A1 sized posters are sent to all schools in the County. These are put up in the canteens and pupils are encouraged to add their name to the poster and put their opinion about the school meals following set criteria, using a scale of 1-5. The areas questioned are:
- Nutrition – is the food nutritionally balanced? Is there fresh produce available?
- Presentation – Does the food look appetising and appealing in its presentation?
- Choice – is there a range of dishes to choose from?
- Taste – does the food have good flavour?
- Staff – are they friendly, willing to help and do they encourage the children to try new foods?
Sarah and marketing officer, Kelly, review the entries and 4 finalists are chosen: 2 primary, and 2 secondary. Sarah and Kelly and a panel of judges visit these schools, where they have a chance to try the food, and chat with the children and the catering staff about the standard of the school meals. In the past celebrity chef Anthony Worrell Thompson was involved and cooked for the winning school. This year Carl and Jo from Fox FM local radio breakfast show came to judge alongside the community dietician - Suzanne Bradshaw, (see above) and chair of the Council, Cllr Shereen Karmali (see to the left).
At the winning secondary school, Blessed George Napier School, the Kitchen Manager, explained that since she came into post two years ago she has been encouraging the children to try different fruits and vegetables by using attractive salad bars, and preparing fruit salads. She also buys fresh ingredients
for the meals, which are all made in the schools kitchens. Unfortunately chips are still on the menu, and a popular choice for the pupils who like them for their convenience, however the Kitchen Manager has plans for the summer to make packed lunches for the children to take out onto the school fields to eat, and to gradually reduce the number of times chips are being offered. The Headmaster explained that by not being tied to a contractor the pupils have been able to have more say about their menus and changes can be made
accordingly. There is also an active School Nutrition Action Group (SNAG), which represents parents, pupils, governors and teachers and has an input into the school food policy
The Headmaster was very proud that the pupils had voted for their school as having the best school meals and intends to carry on working in this area to ensure that this tradition carries on.
Other Resources:
School meal checks:
- Check sheets, and food sampling equipment is needed.
"Luxury resource": input of the community dietician.
Best School Meals Competition
- Posters, and flyers
- Contact with catering suppliers
Sustainability:
School Meal Checks:
As previously mentioned, schools are now part of the food enforcement officers inspection plan and thus these checks will be continued to be carried out.
Best School Meals Competition:
Oxfordshire CC had already been working on raising the awareness of school meal standards long before the media raised this as an issue and the Trading Standards Department has every intention to carry on with this Competition.
Evaluation:
School Meals Checks
2001/2002 Crossing the Boundaries Project
52 primary schools were visited across the 4 counties. Many important points resulted from this work – all of which can be found in the attached report however below are some of the conclusions that were reached:
- The results indicated that some samples had been found to be low in energy, carbohydrates and folic acid, and in some cases this could be attributed to poor portion control.
- Cooking practices can seriously affect the nutritional value of the meals.
- Although at the beginning of service the full choice was available in some cases these choices would run out.
- The standards only cover schools maintained by local authorities, which means that some schools manage to escape the standards.
- No penalties are specified in the standard for non-compliance.
- Standards are not clear. Are fruit yoghurts a fruit based dessert? No portion control is specified, nor are there specifications on the quality or variety of foods.
- Some schools were not aware of the standards.
2004 Oxfordshire Project
Results of Primary Schools Audit Inspection using check sheets: 135 schools visited.
- 29% failed to offer a fruit based dessert twice a week.
- 7% did not provide at least one type of vegetable everyday. (The main reason for this non-compliance was the inclusion of spaghetti hoops as a type of vegetable on menus, since many schools were not aware that spaghetti hoops are pasta and not a vegetable.)
- 5% did not provide fresh or tinned fruit. In one school only 4 apples were supplied for 60 children being catered for. Most schools were offering some fruit but not much emphasis was placed on it.
- 2% did not provide a dairy option daily
- Starchy foods cooked in oil or fat shall not be used in the cooking process on more than three days in any week. Some staff were not aware items like smileys, waffles and sauté potatoes could be oven cooked instead of fried, however others said that they did not have enough oven space to oven cook.
| Nutrient | Average Result | Guideline (Caroline Walker Trust Guidelines) |
| Energy | 502.3 kcal | 557 kcal |
| Fat | 19.2g | 21.7g |
| Carbohydrate | 67.6g | 74.3g |
| Saturated Fatty Acid | 3.5g | 6.8g |
| Protein | 15g* | 8.5g |
| Dietary Fibre | 3.6g | 4.5g |
* This is particularly high, which can be seen as positive, however protein can be expensive and some may view it more beneficial to cut down on the protein a little and focus more on where nutrients are lacking.
Sodium:
The sodium content of the meals was found to be relatively low in comparison the guideline used of 5g per day for 7-10yrs.. Although it is possible that further salt could be added by the child at the table,
Vitamin C content:
The majority of the fruit sampled was found to have Vitamin C content lower than the average nutritional content specified in ‘McCance and Widdowsons’ tables.
Fish Content:
The fish content for the school items varied from 38% to 68%, (higher than the retail equivalents 34%-64%) therefore children in some schools are receiving a better quality product.
Mercury level in tuna:
In the sample the mercury level was not a problem, it is advised that the supplier is not changed in this case.
The report attached moves on to give further qualitative results and provides a number of recommendations.
Best School Meal Competition
Each year that the competition has been held more and more schools have been entering, indicating that they importance of nutrition and desires of the children are increasing.
Lessons learnt:
School Meal Checks:
It is difficult to undertake comprehensive checks and improve the food offered by schools due to the limitations of the Regulations and also the lack of money schools have to improve their service. It is also difficult for Trading Standards staff to assess the meals offered due to their lack of nutritional knowledge; joint working with community dieticians is therefore required to fully assess the problem. The majority of school meals in the County are managed by County Facilities Management, therefore it is important that we work closer with them to ensure the Regulations are being meet and to help improve the service offered.
Just because a school is offering a healthy menu does not mean the child actually eats it, to ensure a balance diet is eaten, children must be educated and encouraged to eat healthy at school and at home.
School Meal Competition:
1.It has been hard to sustain the level of prizes for the winning schools; having started with celebrity chefs it takes a lot of effort to keep the reward at the same level. With hindsight it would have been easier just to make a simple presentation.
2.Need now to place more focus on sharing good practice from the successful schools to the less successful.
Future Developments:
As previously mentioned schools are now part of the inspection programme for food officers and all shall be visited at least once over the next 5 years.
Again with the School Meals Competition, there is no reason not to carry on, and with the increased media attention regarding school meals there is a greater likelihood that the number of competition entries will surely increase.
School Meal Checks Contact:
Name: Terri BonhamPosition: Trading Standards Officer
Address:
PO Box 618 County Hall,
New Road,
Oxford
OX1 1DX
Telephone: 01865 815066
Email address: terri.Bonham@oxfordshire.gov.uk
School Meal Competition Contact:
Name: Sarah Edwards
Position: Community Development Officer
Address:
PO Box 618 County Hall,
New Road,
Oxford
OX1 1DX
Telephone: 01865 816049