London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Food agency to check school lunches in England meet standards

Food agency to check school lunches in England meet standards

Inspections are part of government plans to tackle obesity in line with its ‘levelling up’ policy
Inspectors from the Food Standards Agency are to check on school lunches in England to make sure they meet national standards, as part of government plans to tackle obesity within its levelling up white paper to be published on Wednesday.

The white paper is also expected to include a new push to teach students about healthy eating and food preparation, with all students expected to leave school knowing how to prepare and cook at least six basic recipes, as well as adopting measures championed by the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.

The move comes amid fears that schools in some parts of the country are struggling to meet the national school food standards that have been in place since 2015, such as including no more than two portions of deep-fried food in school lunches each week.

There is also evidence that childhood obesity increased markedly during the Covid pandemic, which saw physical education, school sports and other activities for children cancelled or restricted.

“Obesity has got worse because of Covid. This has been especially bad in the most deprived areas. Many of our most deprived children are carrying a lockdown legacy around their waists, which is affecting their life chances,” a Whitehall source said.

“No one has got this wrong deliberately but we need to make it a lot easier for everyone who is involved with feeding our kids.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he applauded the change in the government’s “snobby attitude” towards children learning skills, but added: “We are wary of the idea of yet another agency carrying out checks on schools on top of all the other agencies that already do so. And if there is an aim to teach every secondary school child how to cook it is difficult to see where this could now be shoehorned into an already over-crowded curriculum.”

A pilot scheme to be announced in the white paper will mean the agency starts inspecting food offered by schools in a small number of local authorities later this year. The aim is to improve ways to help schools comply with the existing standards.

There will also be new funding to train secondary school teachers in cooking and food preparation, with £5m over three years to give training to a teacher from every state secondary and create courses. The government wants every child to leave school knowing how to cook six recipes.

The white paper also adopted a policy promoted by Oliver and Bite Back 2030, the charity the chef co-founded to lobby to improve food for young people. Last month, Oliver and the leaders of 600 state schools called for each school to publish annual food reports showing what progress it had made in meeting standards on health and nutrition.

According to the white paper, the reporting of schools food arrangements will initially be voluntary but the intention is for it become mandatory. School governors are also to be given extra training on their responsibilities to improve food standards.

A recent report by Bite Back highlighted the different lunch choices offered at schools across the country, with pupils on free school meals reporting they were given fewer choices.

But the white paper is not thought to improve funding for children receiving free school meals, which includes all infants up to year two. The government pays £2.34 for each child’s food a day, only slightly more than it did a decade ago despite rising prices.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
×