to think school dinners may contain GMO?

[MsMarshmallow]

I was talking about this with a friend before. The fact that school dinners are so inexpensive alone is reason to suspect that ingredients might not be the best quality... And then we became a bit conspiranoic. Do you think that is there any chance our children are being fed GM? What is the regulation? We're talking about a big state primary that uses external catering.

lucky you that yours are inexpensive, ours cost between £1.70 and £2.20 per day depending on whether they choose the main meal or snack

Well I can tell you for. Fact school dinners are not cooked from scratch. Mash is instant mash, pasta sauce and curry is jarred, cakes/biscuits come from a mix (just add water), veg is always frozen and meat is frozen and reformed. It's not as healthy as schools make out.

pretty much ANYTHING in this country that contains cheese will have been subject to GM methods Most cheeses are now made using chymosin (the active ingredient of rennet) isolated from genetically modified microorganisms, as this is cheaper and vegetarian-friendly.

Ginsoakedmisery - how do you know for fact that this is true for all schools in all local authorities? I've seen the raw potatoes being delivered to our school!

YABU to conflate "genetically modified" and "not the best quality".

What do you understand by the term 'fed GM'? What do you count as genetic modification? A lot of it has been done for centuries through selective breeding and chemical use, does that count?

GM in the modern world has come to mean one of 2 things:

using the genes from one species in another species - so using jellyfish genes in a tomato for instance - not selective breeding within the species itself...

Or actively implanting useful DNA within the species using genetic engineering - often done using a plant virus or fungus as in the case of GM soy - the GM bit is in the transfer method in this case.

Both have their problems... but will end up feeding the world...

I've also seen raw potatoes! And a butchers van every Monday morning.
I do not believe its a national strategy, each school is different. I've given peripatetic support in a large range of schools and some lunches were good, others no so.
School lunches are not cheap. Good food is not cheap.
My children have school dinners Monday (as all bread hAs been eaten) and Friday (I've given up by then) packed lunch rest of the week.

Ours aren't cheap. They're £2.70 a day. Mine take cheap packed lunches of questionable quality because that's what we can afford

There aren't that many GM products I sale in Britain. Is there a particular product you're concerned about or reason you're worried, out of interest?

To be honest if you eat animal products in this country, those animals will probably have been fed on GM grain (or in the case of cheese made with GM enzymes).

Food is mostly fresh at our school too. No instant mash or cakes made out of mix. Some of the veg is frozen, but I don't see a problem with that.

I don't think GM food is as horrific and scary as it sounds.

Even at 2.20 it's fairly cheap for a well balanced meal containing appropriate amounts of protein, carbs, veg and then a pudding when there's always fruit and salad to choose from as well. I agree it's not likely to be the highest quality produce that they use, but I don't think there's any need to automatically assume that the quality is awful either.

I don't agree with GM foods because of the effect on biodiversity around the world.

However if you don't worry about what your food contains, in other ways and aren't concerned about environmental factors, then it won't be a big issue to most.

In the UK and across the EU there has to be rigerous testing and reasoning behind the use if GM crops, most applications are rejected. Bayer pushes continually for the use if GM crops. If you are involved in on line campaigning you will know about this, of course.

When testing is done, GM are found in even organic "GM free" foods, this is because crops are contaminated through soul, water and insects.

We all eat GM foods in small amounts, I take in alot being Vegan, I try to not eat Vegatable Oil but realistically I use Soya products. The evidence if it being harmful is patchy, it is the effect on nature, as said, that is the damaging part.

Most people have no idea what goes into our food and how rubbish it now all is.

"Through soil (not soul)"

I don't doubt it.

I find it crazy how schools are supposed to promote 'healthy' eating considering what's on the menu. The idea of healthy eating seems to just come down to a 'balanced diet' of carbs, protien and veg and no thought to the ingredients that actually go into it. SMASH!? Gosh!!

My DS has a packed lunch and always will. In his packed lunch he has 2 pieces of fruit, a packet of naturally flavoured rice cakes, a no junk cereal bar and I mix his main meal up between home made sandwhiches or home made pizza. The school know that DS has a strict diet due to health reasons and then I'm a bit of a 'crazy parent' on top of that because I don't give him any aspartame, refined sugars and keep pesiticides at a minimum. He has one cereal bar which is just a mixture of nuts with a thin layer of pure coco on the top so I was infuriated when they took it away from him at lunch time because of the coco considering what they feed the children.

Also whilst I'm on a mini rant about food and schools supposedly promoting healthy eating I left on the last day of term in tears for DS! because when I went to pick DS up two teachers where stood at the door handing out handfuls of chocolate santas, sweets and candy canes to all the children! I was watchining thinking 1)Parents can choose to give their children sweets and chocolate at home but a school shouldn't. 2) What where they going to do when my DS was called?

DS was LEFT OUT and I was left to comfort him on why all his friends had treats and he didn't he was a heartbroken and a confused 4yo. I do not for one moment expect a teacher or anyone to go out of their way for DS because I know it is difficult however they could have at least notified me so I could have bought in an alternative. I'm yet to send a polite e-mail to the head but despite DS being 'different' when it comes to diet I still don't think they should be handing out sweets and chocolate to children without any parents permission. Healthy eating in schools should be HEALTHY all round.

conversely, I do agree with GM foods because of the effects on hunger in the third world... if soya/wheat/oil yields were back to what they were in the 90s people would starve.

I do worry about what my food contains, I do worry about the environment, but population growth means we need to either stop people having babies, or work out how to feed them, probably a combination of both...

Parenthood, are you sure the feral bar was taken away from your son because of the cocoa? In my school it would have been taken away because of the nuts because there is a staff member with a nut allergy.

They should have contacted you about an alternative treat if it was the staff giving them out. It's more difficult when children have brought on sweets to share on their birthdays, teachers don't have time during the school day to sort something out last minute, and probably neither will parents. I'm sure if you gave them a stash of suitable treats to keep they will use them on days when children bring in stuff to share.

They give stuff out at the end of the day so that they take it home and parents control whether their children have it or not. I don't agree that healthy eating in schools should mean they are never given any form of treat. Children cannot learn to make healthy choices for themselves if they are never exposed to anything that might be considered unhealthy, and if it's a treat, then it's an occasional thing which is fine.

ParentHoodJourney, mine wouldnt have been allowed the cereal bar but due to the nuts rather than the chocolate/coco. Our school doesnt ban anything other than that but asks parents to provide a healthy packed lunch.

ha ha at feral bar!

Ha! Auto correct is off on one again!

It was definately the staff so there wasn't an excuse but like i said I don't expect anyone to go out of their way for him just to notify me so that I can as that's my responsibility. I will have a chat with them and come up with something like you suggested, that's a good idea with the stash.

DS has plenty of treats, he's currently munching on a cookie and in his stocking he had white chocolate snowmen but none of his treats have refined sugar, flavouring or colours and I find it sad that this stuff is considerably more expensive and harder to find but that's just the way it is and I'm very greatful that we can afford to meet those needs at the moment. I'm getting to grips with it a bit more now though and I'm finding that actually we can eat yummy food, junk free food fairly cheaply when I have the time to make it from scratch.

They did take it away due to the cocoa but in fairness his teacher was also stunned that a dinner lady did this and said that she would let her know that the cocoa is fine for DS.

"do worry about what my food contains, I do worry about the environment, but population growth means we need to either stop people having babies, or work out how to feed them, probably a combination of both..."

We can feed the world, it is what and how we are farming and the price paid for crops that is causing world hunger.

As well as how we are being changed in our eating and shopping habits.

Even the quite jokey programme on last night "100 diet and exercise myths" covered the lack of minerals in our veg thanks to how farming, the food industry, transportation and what we want to eat, has turned some of our veg into junk food, nutritionally speaking.

GM crops damage biodiversity which in turn causes more land to not be able to be used as arable land and is why the insect population is growing and then is able to cause more disease. Couple that with what we (big food corporations from the US and UK) are insisting is grown on the little arable land that is available and people are no longer able to subsistence farm at the level they need to.

World hunger hasn't just happened, it has been created.

The population of less developed countries is falling the average family size is getting smaller, through choice.

I am SO angry at the pressure on us to accept school meals....ours are a bucket of shite. I feed my children whole foods....home cooked...organic where possible. School can't say the same thing but they dare to push the "fact" that they are healthy. They're not. Cheap meat from God knows where....instant this and plastic cheese sauce. No thanks.