Minister Sends Out Mixed Message On Chips Every Day In School Meals

The move to improve the diet of Scotland’s schoolchildren has been one of the Scottish Executive’s most important and high-profile initiatives. Keen to ensure that new guidelines would provide a solid base for the next generation, the Executive set up an expert advisory body consisting of nutritionists, dentists and education watchdogs to decide on what food should be served in school canteens and tuck shops.

After a series of meetings, the experts concluded that deep fried food, such as chips, should only be served in schools a maximum of three times a week. Many expected that conclusion to be rubber-stamped by Scottish ministers.

But yesterday Hugh Henry, Scotland’s education minister, angered many parents and nutritionists by overruling the conclusion of the expert group by saying that oven chips could be served five days a week in schools. Mr Henry said his proposals – which mean that chips must be served as part of a meal – were “a sensible and balanced approach” to the question of what pupils should be allowed to eat in school.

Nutritionists and politicians accused the minister of sending out “mixed messages” to children about what they should eat. The new rules form part of the Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition) Act, which was passed by the Scottish Parliament earlier this month. The Act bans fizzy drinks and chocolate from sale in schools, although crisps will be allowed as long as they are low in fat and salt.

Mr Henry said: “Although pupils will enjoy the occasional treat, they should not be able to eat fatty chocolate and salty crisps washed down by sugary fizzy drinks every playtime. It is also important they don’t eat chips and only chips every lunchtime. That’s why I’ve decided that chips can only be served as part of a meal. I know that an occasional plate of fish, chips and peas can be tasty. I’ve also decided to restrict deep fried products to being served twice a week.”

Although the decision stipulates that schools must serve oven chips, nutritionists have warned that some types of oven chip can still be high in fat and pointed out that it would be impossible to force pupils to eat a healthy option with their chips.

Carina Norris, a nutritionist, said that while a complete ban would be counter-productive, Mr Henry risked sending out “mixed messages” to pupils about what should be in their school lunch.

Ms Norris, who is based in Fife, said: “The problem of insisting that pupils eat chips as part of a meal, say with a piece of grilled chicken, is that you can’t be sure the children won’t just eat the chips. You can’t force feed them, you just have to hope that because they’ve bought it, they’re going to eat it.

“You have to convince them that just because chips are OK, it doesn’t mean that chips alone are OK. It seems silly to ban chips simply because they are called chips when they can be lower in fat than other foods and when potatoes are a good source of nutrients.

In January, chip makers McCain launched a new line which are low in fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt. However, it is unlikely that primary and secondary schools will serve this chip, which is more expensive than many others on the market.

But Ms Norris said: “While it’s wrong to vilify them, you do really need to look around for low fat oven chips. “

Sarah Schenker, of the British Nutrition Foundation, said: “There’s not much wrong with oven chips, but children will probably not understand that not all chips are equal and that the chips you get from a takeaway have about four times as much fat.”

Fiona Hyslop, the SNP education spokeswoman, said the new guidelines sent out the wrong message about whether or not chips should be on the school menu. “The whole point of the healthy eating drive is to educate pupils that there are other options besides chips and the only way to do that is to give them alternatives,” she said. “The minister is not giving pupils the chance to try other food if he’s still allowing them to eat chips every day.”

Judith Gillespie of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council said: “You can overplay the dangers of certain types of food. If you listen to some people, you would think that deep fried chips are worse than heroin.

“Youngsters should be encouraged to learn how to choose healthy options for themselves, but that doesn’t preclude them from eating other types of food as well. At the end of the day, if you eat sensibly and exercise, you will be OK.”

A spokesman for the Conservatives said: “Government has a role to play in passing on information to schools, but it should be for headteachers, with parents, to decide exactly how that is implemented.”