No place for junk food in Scottish schools

Junk food will be shown the red card in Scottish schools as part of the drive to improve the nation’s health.

The measure was unveiled by the Scottish Executive in a consultation paper outlining how young people will be helped to develop more healthy eating habits.

Schools will have to make sure that all the food and drink they provide meets tough nutritional standards, and will also be required to make include health promotion as a central part of pupils’ education.

Councils will have a duty to promote the uptake of free school meals for the poorest families and will be given the powers to provide healthy free snacks to young people. Parents, meanwhile, will be offered advice on producing healthy packed lunches.

Education minister Peter Peacock said: “We want to ensure that those young people from the poorest backgrounds get more help. Too many young people entitled to a free meal don’t take one today and the new duty on councils to promote uptake, together with new powers to provide free snacks, means we can target more help to those most in need.”

The consultation period ends on 31 July.

Improving the Health and Nutrition of Scotland’s Children from http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/05/02142249/0