< img src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c396afdf3d481991be7f510a96403ff66f625686/340_0_2500_2000/master/2500.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=45a8483bfac7dbd6131c66605e9777bd"alt =""> A government push to get schoolchildren consuming more lentils, pulses and beans at lunch might have a “destructive result”, making catering services unviable, school meal companies have warned.Proposals for healthier meals in English schools, which would limit the amount of desserts and reduce”grab-and-go”products such as pizzas and sausage rolls, would stack pressure on an already struggling sector, caterers said.Brad Pearce, the chair of The School Food People, a trade body that represents school meal companies, alerted the changes were likely to increase expenses and push students to find somewhere to buy unhealthy food.”We believe there will be unintended effects of secondary school students who buy food and drink on the way to school, or leave schools at lunch break and buy it on the high street.” That has a disastrous result on the practicality of our services in regards to profits, and payment for staff and food and
active ingredients– whether that’s a school that runs its own service or a large catering company,”he said.Tracey Smith, the president of the catering service Sodexo’s school and university service, added that caterers already had to balance”nutrition versus what kids find appealing and what they actually wish to eat”. She said:”What we don’t desire is children to start bringing in jam-packed lunches that aren’t balanced since they think that they do not like the school food or that they can
not afford it.”If you are looking at an actually top quality vegetarian dish, that might be the very same rate as a meat meal.” The proposals revealed previously this month and the first significant
update to school food requirements in 13 years, will prioritise kids’s fiber consumption. Some modifications are expected to come into impact in September 2027, including making it mandatory for all school puddings to be made of at least 50%fruit. Deep-fried products such as battered fish and chicken nuggets will be banned.Lentils are most likely to be integrated into more meals as a healthier and nutritious replacement for meat sometimes, although suppliers have actually said that– provided the legumes are mostly imported into the UK– it might drive up their costs further.The wholesaler Bidfood, which supplies school catering services throughout the nation, said more stringent demands would include further strain on the industry.Gavin Squires, a business development controller at Bidfood, said: “Changes to menus and product requirements, along with minimized menu flexibility in certain locations, might have ramifications for sourcing, availability and stock management, at a time when supply chains are already extended.
“The average cost of a school lunch in England was ₤ 3.16 last year, although catering services said prices were mostly affected by the level of financing from the government.The government invests ₤ 1.5 bn every year to supply complimentary school meals for about 3.4 million kids. This figure is anticipated to increase from September this year, when all homes in receipt of universal credit will be entitled to free meals, extending access to more than 500,000 children.Elevated inflation has currently increased pressure on catering services, who generally run on low profit margins.
The war in Iran is anticipated to further rise food prices.Compass Group, among the greatest service providers in the sector, has a net revenue margin of just 4%. Sodexo, a group that also offers facilities management services, has a margin of 2.8%. Bidfood’s margin had to do with 3%in its 2025 fiscal year, according to accounts filed at Companies House.Members of The School Food Individuals have actually reported 50-70%inflation in food costs in their supply chain in the past 3 years, Pearce stated. “The pressures from the increase in the UK living wage and the London living wage are huge, “he said.”Plus you have the war in the Middle East and increases in fuel costs; it is adding pressure on what is already a very difficult situation.”However, Stephanie Slater, the president of the charity School Food Matters, stated much healthier food requirements did not necessarily translate to greater expenses.”There is a real capture at the moment with food inflation and labour costs, “she stated.”However it is a broader problem that it is less about food standards and more about the truth that the system needs more funding. “The Department for Education is consulting on its propositions until 12 June, with plans for the new guidelines to come into force next year.The proposed changes come in the middle of increasing concerns around kids’s health, with data for 2024 launched by the NHS in January revealing that 24 %of nursery and main schoolchildren were obese or living with obesity.It is
the first overhaul to school meals because 2012, when the government-commissioned School Food Strategy was written by Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent, the co-founders of the food chain Leon. The revamp comes 20 years after parents at a school in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, caused a storm of nationwide protection after being pictured passing food through its iron railings in an what was depicted
as a demonstration versus the chef Jamie Oliver’s healthy-eating campaign.A spokesperson for the Department for Education said:”Our new school food requirements were completely checked with catering services
, schools and nutritional professionals to make sure they are deliverable, practical and do not have destructive knock-on effects to moms and dads and pupils.”Throughout this process we discovered that lots of schools throughout the nation are currently creating budget friendly, scrumptious meals that satisfy these standards. Several saw the expense of meals fall.”The spokesperson stated a”phased technique”would be required to offer catering services time to adjust.