A pilot trial of England’s new school food standards has resulted in a 15% drop in meal uptake, according to a caterer involved in the six-week test at a Brighton primary school.
The findings have raised fresh questions about the government’s proposals, which are intended to improve children’s diets in schools. But the early results suggest that, at least in this setting, healthier meals were less popular with pupils than the packed lunches they brought from home.
The trial took place over six weeks and was designed to test how the proposed standards would work in practice. Instead of increasing demand for school meals, the pilot saw a decline in uptake as children increasingly rejected the healthier options being offered.
The news may concern ministers and school catering providers who support stronger nutrition rules, because the policy goal is to improve the quality of food children eat during the school day. However, the pilot suggests that changing what is served is only part of the challenge. If pupils are reluctant to eat the new meals, the practical effect of the standards may be more limited than expected.
The caterer said the results had prompted worries that the government’s plans, although well-intentioned, could end up having an adverse effect on children’s health if they push more pupils away from school dinners altogether. That possibility is especially significant in schools where the meal service plays an important role in shaping daily eating habits.
The Brighton pilot offers an early glimpse of how the standards might be received by children once rolled out more widely. While the trial is limited in scope, the 15% fall in uptake points to a clear behavioural response: when faced with healthier school meals, some children chose to stick with packed lunches instead.
The government’s school food standards proposals are meant to improve the nutritional quality of meals served in schools, but the pilot suggests that acceptance among pupils will be crucial to their success. If children do not want to eat the meals, the policy may struggle to achieve its intended benefits.
For now, the six-week trial has sharpened debate over how best to balance nutritional ambitions with what children are actually willing to eat. The results do not rule out the standards themselves, but they do indicate that schools and policymakers may need to think carefully about implementation if they want healthier food to be both available and popular.
