The Government’s nutrient-based standards for school lunches came into force in primary schools in September 2008 and will be enforced in secondary schools from September 2009.
In my first Critique published earlier this year I showed that in my opinion, there is no need to waste your money on expensive software to analyse your menus against nutrient-based standards. As busy school caterers, you don’t have time to be messing around with computers, and anyway, if you’re serving balanced meals that meet the food-based standards, it’s virtually certain that you are meeting the nutrient-based standards.
My NEW report explains in greater detail the assumptions and approximations which have been made in deriving the actual Standards. Furthermore, it shows that it is inevitable that there will be significant errors in the estimations of the nutrient content of the food.
The more I have studied the Standards, the more I believe they are inaccurate and unworkable - the only way to prove the nutrient content of any meal or menu is to have the food analysed in a lab. Factors such as bioavailability of certain nutrients have been ignored, as has the amount of food actually consumed by the pupils.
Download the NEW CRITIQUE now!
