Average UK school meals mostly made of ultra-processed foods

theguardian.com:

Public health experts have called for an urgent cap on ultra-processed food at schools after research found the products made up nearly two-thirds of the average UK school lunch.

Across primary and secondary schools, ultra-processed food accounted for 64% of calories provided by lunchtime meals, the study found, with packed lunches typically containing more of the foods than meals provided by schools themselves.

Ultra-processed products, including fast food and fizzy drinks, are often cheap and marketed as healthy options, but they tend to be higher in salt, fat, sugar and additives that are linked to poor health, such as obesity, diabetes and cancer.

“School meals should be a mechanism for delivering low-cost and healthy meals to all children, which is especially important in the current cost of living crisis,” said Dr Jennie Parnham from the school of public health at Imperial College London. “This is not currently the case. We need urgent policy action to cap the levels of ultra-processed food in school meals.”

The researchers assessed the contents of lunches eaten by more than 3,300 primary and secondary schoolchildren, as recorded in the national diet and nutrition survey between 2007 and 2018. Overall, ultra-processed foods accounted for 82% of calories in packed lunches and 64% in school meals.

According to the analysis in the journal Nutrients, children ate more ultra-processed food when they moved from primary to secondary school, with calories provided by the foods rising from 61% to 77%, partly because more fast food and puddings are served in secondary schools.

Asked whether school meals have improved since 2018, Parnham said the problem had likely become worse. With rising food costs due to Brexit and the war in