Research has found that parents are still packing their children’s school lunch boxes with junk food.
A new study found that just 1.6% of primary school children’s packed lunches could be considered healthy. This is only marginally better than 10 years ago.
Only one in five lunch boxes were found to contain any vegetables or salad.
52-60% of lunch boxes were found to contain too many sweet and savoury snacks.
Some progress has been made in the last decade: the majority of packed lunches passed the standards for protein and vitamin C, and there was a big reduction in sugary drinks (46% compared to 61%).
Three out of 300 lunch boxes scored zero on the nutritional scale, with one found to contain blackcurrant squash, a packet of hula hoops and a chocolate roll.
Another included a pasty, a packet of Wotsits, a chocolate bar and a blackcurrant squash.
“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,” said Sharon Hodgson MP, chair of the all-party parliamentary group for school food.
“We need more action to be taken if we want to see positive changes.”
What do you think?
What do you put in your kids’ lunchbox?
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