28 September 2005
Education Secretary Ruth Kelly has announced her intention to ban junk food from school canteens and vending machines in England by next September.
Vending machines would stock healthy items such as milk, bottled water and fresh fruit instead of fizzy drinks and sweets under the plans.
Cheap burgers and sausages would be banned from canteen menus and new nutritional standards brought in for all school food from September 2006. Ofsted, the school inspection body, would enforce the new standards.
The Education Secretary said:
"For too long children have been forced to learn with nothing but junk food to sustain them - it is time for that to end.
"We are investing to improve ingredients, to build proper kitchens and to better train and value school catering staff.
"What we are doing is right for our children. We know that if they eat properly at school, then their behaviour improves, standards improve."
The Government will publish the full findings of the school meals review panel set up to investigate how to improve school food next week.
£220 million is being invested to help schools and local education authorities transform school meals through training and increased hours for cooks, equipment.
Ofsted, the school inspection body, will enforce regulation of nutritional standards in schools.
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