OFSTED and nursery food?

[puffling]

I'm going to speak too dd's nursery about their menus tomorrow. DD has been having squash (they call it juice), sausages, sausage rolls waffles and god knows what else. It really stresses me when I think of the food that I make for her.
I've just searched the archive for other threads on nursery food and found one which suggested a mumsnet campaign to get ofsted to monitor nutrition aswell as food hygiene.However, I'm not familiar with what Ofsted require and what they simply suggest.
Can someone give me a link to the relevant ofsted website, so I can be more informed when I speak to the nursery?
Dawnx

you can find information from this site (sorry can't do links properly!) www.ofsted.gov.uk

There is a standard relating to food and drink in the national standards which may be worth checking out. Also before you contact them, I would double check the nursery's food policy or similar to make sure that you fully understand it and have all your facts straight.

I think a camapign is a great idea and one I would happily join.

Good luck with your research!

Thanks Lazylou. Now how do I start my campaign?

I would support a campaign like this too. Nursery food is often pretty disgraceful IMO - what could be more important than what goes into their little developing bodies? It makes me feel very sad to think of all those little trusting infants being fed cheap crap by cynical profiteering morons.

Ofsted site is ver confusing. It just seems to have links to articles praising awareness of nutrition in pre-school providers. Anyone got a specific link whicjh will tell me exactly what OFSTED expect children to be fed?

hi, greensleeves please dont assume everyone feeds the little people crap!

at my nursery we have homecooked food, i eat with them so it must be good as im a rather fussy eater.
in fact if you think about it if you buy fresh fruit and veg it probably works out cheaper than buying processed food and ready made meals.

you wont get much info from ofsted
it only says that you should provide a healthy menu and they recommend you do not serve processed potato products eg waffles etc

i agree that some nurseries are not educated about good healthy eating,
i started my nursery with healthy food just before jamie oliver started his campaign.

the way to improve quality is to get on to the local authority and ask them if they provide training courses for nurseries regarding nutrition etc ask for the early years team....

Well, I didn't say everyone does. I said it is often the case, and it makes me sad and angry.

If your nursery are providing decent nutritious food, all power to you. Would you lend your support to a campaign to get Ofsted to consider nutrition as well as food hygiene in their inspection criteria?

yes i would.
it makes me cross too, parents have looked round my nursery and commented on the good quality menus. they had visited other nurseries with menus with chips, potato waffles hot dogs spaghetti hoops etc