Ultra Processed School Lunches

[Magssss]

Like many of us, I’ve been reading a lot about ultra processed food recently and the fairly catastrophic effect it’s having on our health. It’s linked to everything from obesity to increased chance of cancer and heart disease and who knows what else.

I was looking at the kids (fairly standard) school lunch menu and it’s littered with UPF. Oven chips, pizza, sausages, fruity yoghurts, biscuits, jelly, ice cream. I remember eating loads of turkey dinosaurs/chicken nugget type food at school in the 90s and I know Jamie Oliver did some campaigning around the issue but our children are clearly still being fed mostly UPF. Then we as parents get blamed when children are struggling with weight gain at younger and younger ages. For some children this is their only meal of the day and it’s composed of essentially fake food.

I know I could switch to packed lunches but apparently the percentage of UPF in packed lunches is even higher unless you have the time to make everything including the bread from scratch. It’s a really frustrating situation.

That is so true. My eldest went up to high school and you can see what he buys on parent pay. Cheese and ham paninis, pizza slices crisps, fizzy drinks( no sugar versions) and hot chocolate.

There Is a canteen which I suspect serves veg but there is a queue and a lack of seating so “everyone” preorders in the morning and picks up their panini from snack bar at lunch.

Kids are not gaining weight due to one meal a day. Even less likely if that's their only meal!

My child's high school have an amazing menu but they are unusual ime. Primary they do have upf two days a week but others are things like curry, veggie enchiladas, roast dinner.

I get what you're saying, but I'm not entirely sure what else you were expecting?
If you're going for a completely non -UPF menu then you be looking at things like fresh veg and fruit, ingredients for sauces, like spices, tomatoes and cream, then rice, meat etc. so it stands to reason that every other aisle in the supermarket wouldn't suffice!
I don't what a supermarket would be able to fill the rest of their shelves as they do sell all the above ingredients, alongside aisles and aisles of tins etc.
I guess we'd have to revert to going individual shops like the greengrocer and butchers etc. But that's not going to happen!

Just a note that you need to draw a line between processed foods that are ready made but using normal ingredients and those which are ultra processed using ingredients you don't have at home. There's a list somewhere I've seen so for example normal sausages are ok once a week, but ultra processed would be tinned frankfurters, definitely avoid. Bread wasn't on the bad list, nor pasta - but ready meals were.

I mostly scratch cook so really can't get to worried about a few things slipping in - eg I buy pate, Aioli, crisps, some bread for sandwiches, cheese. I buy roasting meat on a Sunday big enough for sandwiches through to Wednesday, then it's cheese for instance, if we've been out they have ham, but not most weeks

Packed lunches are higher in UPF because of society's perception of a packed lunch - we are conditioned to think a packed lunch is a sandwich, crisps/other UPF snack, fruit. The whole thing lends itself to UPF

We need to look at other options for a packed lunch. In winter, I send children hot meals in a thermos, usually consisting of stews/daal and rice/pasta with vegetables alongside fruit and a sweet item. I make flatbreads or other grains at home and send this in summer with a dip plus a protein (cheese/tofu) and veg sticks. Treat is small homemade brownie/cookie/any other sweet.

For those who do find it overwhelming, it is better to look at what we feed at home before thinking about the 5 meals each week in term time eaten in school. Overall those 5 meals are not a hugely significant part of their diet, what we do at home is far more important

So is pizza automatically upf even if made from scratch? Ie dough homemade, tomato sauce made with tinned toms & tomato purée? Because the school pizza is made in this way. Likewise the bread that’s served at school, that’s made from scratch in the school kitchen.

And the cakes eg chocolate cake has a tiny bit of cocoa powder and then prunes in to get the chocolate colour.

Genuine question because I thought if made from scratch that would mean not upf but now I’m worried!

I decided to take control myself, there's no point wringing your hands hoping the government will do something.

the percentage of UPF in packed lunches is even higher unless you have the time to make everything including the bread from scratch You can buy non-upf bread, or use a bread machine, or batch bake.

We make a huge batch of everything, freeze it and the kids take out what they want each night ready to make their packed lunch in the morning. Then add fresh fruit & veg.

Packed lunches are so much cheaper and more nutritious.

I think not all UPFs are equal though. For example fish fillets covered in breadcrumbs - really not as bad as things with a tonne of trans fats and other non recognisable ingredients. (Fish fingers.)

Things made from ingredients you would get in a regular kitchen are not upf.

Ok great thank you…I was worried I had it all wrong for a moment!

In which case the vast majority of stuff at my dc’s school is definitely not upf, even where it is things like pizza that may be upf if bought ready made. School lunches are not that bad. Though it has been noticeable how current food prices are impacting the offer.

UPF is cheaper if you haven't been taught how to cook real food properly. This is where education in schools is awful. There is a huge number of adults who wouldn't know how to make a simple base which can then be portioned and then go on to be used in a variety of dishes with varying spices.

Equally with sky high energy prices, how many consider how to make the most of their oven when switching it on and bake multiple things at a time? Then put something else in while it is cooling down to take advantage of the heat? Likewise with pot in pot cooking in a pressure cooker so 2 items cook with turning it on once?

My Mum's family fell on hard times when she was a child and this is how they managed - heat was never wasted because it cost them so much. She picked up the skills and has passed them onto me. I consider myself very lucky to have been brought up with parents who cooked from scratch daily as it is second nature to me as a result

@wildfirewonder im not sure I entirely agree with you - yes I can choose to take more control of what my kids eat but what about the children who don’t have a parent who can do that for them? I think we should collectively be wringing our hands for them and demanding better. They may not have a parent willing or able to make things from scratch and they might only get that one school meal per day. Are we happy that studies suggest these meals are 60-70% UPF? I don’t think we should accept that for any children.

I think a pp is correct in that people just haven't learned how to cook cheap from scratch - that's not a dig btw, it just isn't prioritised in UK society anymore. Upf is much cheaper to buy unless you are cooking pots of sauces with seasoning etc to use in multiple dishes for example and a lot of people just don't have the time.

We live in Portugal and 2yo ds goes to nursery full time here, every day his lunch is a starter of soup (usually veg) then main meal alternates between meat and fish served with veg and or salad with potatoes. They have spaghetti bolognese sometimes and breaded chicken but everything is made from scratch (by a catering company) there's barely if any upf in his nursery.
It seems to be just a part of the culture here, everyone goes out to buy their fresh bread most days from the local bakery, buying processed white loafs from the supermarket just isn't a thing.
They also get most fruit and veg from a local market, it baffled me at first because it seemed such a long winded way of doing things but now I reckon they have it right!

School food can be crap

But take UPF with a large serving of salt. It’s the thing of the moment, like paleo and clean eating and low carb and low fat and blah blah before it.

Really ultra processed food you don’t want too much of,, but plenty of packaged food like bread is just processed - so when people start defining everything as ultra processed they are talking bollocks. Sainsbury’s sliced Multiseed is just processed for example.

Yes it's absolutely horrendous. Jamie Oliver gots lots of press but was essentially ineffective. Academies sell food for profit so cheap and crappy ingredients are incentivised. Cooking large scale dishes from scratch would be cheaper for ingredients but more expensive for staff. I don't think that money should be the biggest factor but for it to not be schools need proper funding. Don't vote Tory, support the strikes.

You can lobby AND make a packed lunch for your own kids.

If you have secondary aged kids, and not in receipt of FSM, packed lunches will save money anyway.

Of course it should be better. But we have a Tory government.

I will say most food at my DC’s primary isn’t UPF as they do cook a lot from scratch and add fruit/veg to recipes, so I’m basically happy with that.

I don’t think the issue is that one meal a day makes children fat - and of course there are plenty of children eating junk at school or out and healthily at home. But it’s undeniable that eating more UPF gives you a taste for it. I’ve noticed it in myself, I’ve seen it in children and it’s proven that they have an effect on the body and brain that is measurable (see the van Tulleken stuff for this). So I worry a lot about the 16 year olds I see with eg a cookie and bottle of fizzy drink for breakfast, chicken strips, crisps and chocolate for lunch with more fizzy drink or a milkshake and then takeaway for dinner (as they often work in these sort of places and get free/cheap food). They’re not fat usually but they’ve trained their tastebuds so they can barely tolerate fresh food as it seems bland and flavourless to them. While we’re giving young children UPFs we’re essentially doing that to them.

As part of an overall balanced diet fine. I don’t see the need to worry about a bowl of cereal or a couple of slices of white bread a day. But when it’s the majority - and the majority of people get the majority of their calories from UPFs - then it is a worry, and schools selling and promoting this food is part of it.

The difference is the scientific research about upf is detailed and clear.

Supermarket/commercial factory bread is one of the worst products of all, I do not know the precise variety you mention but bread in plastic packets is nearly all upf.

Cutting factory bread and breakfast cereal out is a very good first step.

I think it's the fact that 80% ish of the food available in a supermarket is UPFs that surprised me - although not that surprising as apparently 80% of British diets consist of UPFs. To skip not just entire aisles of e.g. biscuits, but aisle after aisle in a row because it's all UPFs was a bit of a shock to me personally. It put it in perspective just how reliant on them/used to it we are, that's all I was saying.

My DD2 won't eat school dinners. And I don't blame her. It would be impossible for her to get more than 1 of her 5 a day. Everything is brought in and then heated up. Even the pizza is declared minging and my DD2 loves pizza.

I send her in with a packed lunch which includes no less than 3 of her 5 a day and the only UPF she has are a packet of crisps once a week and tuna/mayo on wraps. DH makes falafel from scratch, we cook chicken for wraps, and she likes couscous with veg. She gets a slice of home made banana loaf when there is some on the go. But it takes time.

Her packed lunches are way more healthy than mine were in the late 70's/early 80s. I lived on tinned ravioli and chips through my secondary school years!

Totally agree. My kids school have gone all "healthy" and switched chicken nuggets for quorn nuggets, fish fingers for vegan goujons etc, but it's all just the exact same ultra processed shite it always has been. I choose baked tatties for them a lot...

Here's a thought, maybe the parents could pay for their own kids food, if they want better. It's not the government or tax payers responsibility to feed kids that people have chosen to have.

I think schools have quite strict guidelines after Jamie Oliver and you'd be surprised what goes into those meals that look like junk. The pizza dough is often hand made in huge batches, has hidden veg in and is defrosted in the morning to hand made pizza. Just because it comes to the school in a big container doesn't always mean it is upf. The chips are not oven chips just big sets of potatoes that go through a peeling and cutting machine, maybe a very light coating of oil and cooked.

Where did you come to the conclusion that parents don’t pay for their children’s food?

State schools in England provide universal free meals for the first 3 years and then parents pay until 18 (unless v low income).

I was just coming on to say this. Not all processed food is ultra-processed. Some processed foods - hummus, peanut butter from just peanuts, pasta, fresh pasta sauces, oven chips comprising just potatoes and oil etc - are fine and we shouldn’t be getting worked up over them.