Parents are still packing their children’s school lunchboxes with junk food, despite high-profile awareness campaigns on childhood obesity and guidance provided by consumer groups, research has found.
The Leeds University study published on Tuesday found just 1.6% of packed lunches for primary school children met tough nutritional standards set for their classmates eating in the school canteen.
About half of all primary school pupils take a packed lunch to school. Researchers found that only 1 in 5 lunchboxes contained any vegetables or salad, while 52%-60% contained too many sweet and savoury snacks, or sugary drinks (42%), leading to high levels of saturated fat, sugar and salt and not enough minerals and vitamins.
The study, described as “eye opening” by lead researcher Dr Charlotte Evans, saw only a fractional improvement from a decade ago, when 1.1% of lunches passed the standard set for school meals. The minority of children (17%) who eat vegetables and salad had not altered since 2006, it found.
The report found some progress: for instance the majority of packed lunches examined by researchers passed the standards for protein (95%) and vitamin C (75%). There was also a significant reduction in sugary drinks, 46% in 2016 compared with 61%, and a reduction in chocolate-based snacks. But there was no improvement for savoury snacks, such as crisps, found in 60% of packed lunches.
Three out of the 300-odd lunchboxes examined by researchers, in 12 different English primary schools, scored zero – a similar proportion to that found in 2006. One contained blackcurrant squash, a packet of hula hoops and a chocolate roll.
The first statutory school meal standard was introduced in 2006 due to growing evidence linking poor health in adults with obesity or poor diet in children. They limit the amount of foods high in salt, sugar and fats and stipulate that school meals should provide a third of a child’s nutritional requirements. However, although Ofsted says schools must have a policy on packed lunches, there is no law requiring them to abide by the same standards.
Evans, a nutritional epidemiologist, said that she believed the wealth of information on sugar in sweetened drinks may have had an impact on the reduction in the numbers in lunchboxes. But she added that more needed to be done by retailers, food manufacturers and schools if improvements are to be made overall.
Evans said: “I hope the results of the study are an eye-opener, highlighting that more stringent policies need to be introduced if we want to see real change in the nutritional value of children’s packed lunches. New policies for schools, food manufacturers and retailers are needed, which will require strong support from government and stakeholders if progress is to be made.”
The report recommends that primary schools introduce a policy restricting sweetened drinks and encouraging water, salad and fruit. It also suggested parents pack smaller portions of the unhealthy snacks, such as packets of crisps that are around 15g rather than 26g and chocolate cakes and biscuits of 20g. More choices of snacks low in saturated fats and sugars and higher in fibre were needed, it said.
The children’s lunches that met the standard all contained sandwiches with a protein filling and some salad.
Evans said: “Parents struggle, and there are many reasons why children don’t have better quality lunches – cost, peer pressure, convenience, time. Providing information to parents is a start.
“However, we do need to do more than provide information to parents to see a greater impact, such as improving school policies, reformulating products and reducing portions of snacks given to young children. For example, providing a small portion of crisps in a sealed container rather than the full bag.”
Few packed lunches met the standards for energy (12%), vitamin A (17 %), iron (26%) or zinc (16%), due to the lack of fresh salad and vegetables, the dearth of non-processed meat or fish as well as the lack of whole-grain bread.
Sharon Hodgson MP, chair of the all-party parliamentary group for school food, said: “The research highlights the need for more action to be taken on food put in children’s packed lunches, something which the school food APPG has recently called for. Despite positive moves with regards to the food provided as part of a school meal, food brought in by children in their packed lunches is lagging behind. Therefore we need more action to be taken if we want to see positive changes.”
Flora, which commissioned the research, is calling on the government to raise awareness and to do more to ensure the national standards for school food are being met in packed lunches. It has distributed 631,000 lunchboxes containing a healthy lunch planner and made available tips online.