‘No concept of children’s food’: Readers compare ‘stodgy’ UK school dinners with France, Spain and beyond

Iindependent As England prepares to significantly tighten school meal standards, readers discuss how school meals in the UK compare with those in other countries.

It was stated that fried foods will be completely removed from the menus, and sugary foods such as cakes, waffles and ice cream will be severely restricted.

Schools will also be banned from offering daily “grab and go” options such as hot dogs and pizza, and fruit is expected to replace less nutritious snacks for much of the week.

Our community has drawn comparisons from other countries, including France, Spain and Slovakia, where children are served the same style of meals as adults, with greater emphasis on soups, salads, pulses and fresh, minimally processed ingredients, and much less reliance on the type of heavily processed ‘kids food’ that is still prevalent in parts of the UK.

For some readers, the difference with other countries highlights long-standing concerns about the quality of school meals in the UK; memories of boring, highly processed lunches and criticism that years of underfunding and outsourcing had eroded nutritional standards.

Another strand of the debate focused on services for neurodivergent children and selective feeding. Some have argued that packed lunches will remain an important option for many families, warning that stricter menus risk excluding individuals who rely on familiar “safe foods”.

Here’s what you need to say:

Early exposure to vegetables

In France, a four-course school meal usually starts with a salad. This means that children eat it when they are most hungry. Maybe that’s why French children grow up loving vegetables.

Also, there is no such thing as ‘kids food’; Typically in the UK, children eat dinner before their parents and are served quick, easy-to-cook foods such as frozen pizza, fish fingers or nuggets, followed by sweetened yoghurt.

At home, children are given a small snack, perhaps a sandwich, when they come home from school, and then the children have dinner with their parents and eat the same meal. As a result, the obesity rate is much lower in France and people live longer, healthier lives.

Kate

Boring school lunch memories

My memory of school dinners is of pink pudding or bright yellow paste covering large square blocks of steamed pudding, whatever the squares were. The obligatory two scoops of mashed white potatoes have teachers patrolling to make sure you eat them all. The goal was to save the kids calories, but as a result, I never ate sweets, hot fruit, mashed potatoes, or any of the other horrors we were subjected to. It has done absolutely nothing to reduce childhood obesity.

When it comes to neurodivergent kids, the solution is definitely to teach them to pack their own lunch box the night before, filled with white or gray foods they like, and leave school lunches as a lost cause.

indyuser12

We need a complete reset

Nutrition is vital for neurological development. School meals in the UK have always been rubbish; It mostly consists of a small number of fresh vegetables or fruits. We’ve always had an unhealthy relationship with food in this country, and it’s been made worse when we import American food habits and quantity over quality.

It needs to be completely reset, otherwise we will continue to have an unhealthy population.

CScarlett

We swore we’d never use baby food

From the beginning, our daughter ate whatever we ate in puree form. We read baby food labels and vowed never to use them, with a few exceptions.

Growing up, she happily ate almost anything, but her friends who were fed commercial baby food were extremely picky about what they would eat, and they still are the same as young adults. His friends, whose parents do the same thing as us, are also like him.

only if it’s true

Adapting meals for an autistic child

My grandson is autistic and will only eat certain foods: dry whole wheat bread and a soup in which we put lots of vegetables, some chicken and most importantly pineapple to sweeten it and then he is killed by lightning. It’s all he’s eaten since he was 5 (now 17).

Frankly, the school never provided this, so she makes an arrangement with the school and takes him to school with her every day. No embarrassment, no name-calling, no bad comments from others; We just provide what the school cannot provide and no one should cause any trouble.

jools

soup first

School meals and most dinners in Slovakia start with soup. The stomach is filled with low-energy foods and hunger is suppressed before the second meal. Not much attention is paid to desserts; fruit is normally available. Children are used to the presence of legumes and vegetables in soup. The soup is generally relatively thinner and more flavorful than those sold in UK supermarkets.

Non-Avatar

Children eating adult food

In Spain, children usually sit with their families and eat the same food as adults. I remember once watching little ‘Jose’ tuck into his sardine espetos, with the gusto which English children reserve for ice cream, and take them, and eat the flesh off the bones, as he should; no overprotective mother would cut them for him. Many places serve half portions, so kid-friendly portions aren’t universal, but some places (mostly touristy ones) do.

Family life is stronger here and this is seen in the children’s behavior.

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