No red meat on menu?

[stargazer1]

Hi all,
Am looking at the creche at the college I hope to attend shortly for my one year old. Meals are all supplied by Herts Council and adhere to healthy eating principles - no salt or sugar added etc. I was surprised to see 'no red meat served' listed as though it was one of these principles though...surely babies and toddlers need it for the iron?

Can anyone tell me if I'm missing something here - is this commonplace?
Thanks

This was the case at our nursery, I assumed it was to make it easier for them to cater for the halal and kosher diets (I might be wrong).

I think it is to make it easier for halal and kosher diets, plus cheaper. Iron is provided in vegetables too so if there's a big selection and a healthy diet at home then it shouldn't be a big issue.

Thanks for the responses - I never would have thought of that, couldn't understand why they might think avoiding red meat was a healthy option for kids.

Iirc all meat provides iron. You don't need to eat red meat to get it. this is a list of food that provides iron. It does seem lots of leafy greens are on it.

Jamie Oliver said you should add salt to food. He said it was better to give a child healthy food with a little bit of natural salt in to make it taste nice than healthy food with no salt that tastes bland compared with junk food full of masses of hidden salt.

I'm not sure how it makes it easier for halal/kosher.....as if chicken is served that would need to be either halal/kosher (or both in some settings?). Some people avoid beef for religious reaons (Hindus/sikhs) but would eat 'ordinary' chicken without any special slaughter arrangements.

Here pork and beef are off school meals menu, but lamb is served. The muslim/jewish kids eat the vegetarian option but i think the no pork is about contamination.

Is there alot of fish?

Our nursery didn't serve red meat because they were concerned about illnesses which could be contracted from meat. eg ecoli. I don't know much about these things as I am a vegetarian but that was their thinking.

Btw plenty of iron in most cereals etc. Children definitely don't need to eat meat.

in our nursery we only serve chicken and turkey. We are very ethnically diverse and have found that it is easier to simply serve halal poultry or fish.

Our nursery looked at the Herts meals, and it wasn't suitable for our nursery to use, however i do believe they offer a good balanced diet.

We do offer red meat at our nursery.