Schools: Food

(asked on 5th October 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2020 to Question 51681, what progress he has made with Public Health England on updating School Food Standards based on refreshed Government dietary recommendations.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 8th October 2020

We already have very robust school food standards set in legislation, which require school caterers to serve healthy and nutritious food and drinks, to ensure children get the energy and nutrition they need across the school day. We are working closely with schools to ensure these are consistently followed.

As schools and their kitchens are now open, healthy and nutritious meals are available for all pupils. We have asked schools to work with their existing suppliers to provide meals or food parcels to pupils eligible for benefits-related free school meals where they are self-isolating. LACA and Public Health England have published advice to schools to help them prepare healthy food parcels, which is available here:
https://laca.co.uk/laca-view/free-school-meals-guidance-producing-food-parcels.

Due to the priority of responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, and considering the robustness of the existing standards, the government has no further plans to update the School Food Standards.

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