Healthy packed lunch guide for parents

Packed lunch guide: Helping hand or nanny state? Have your say in reader comments below

The guide, which also contains information on new meal standards for schools, urges parents to include nutritious foods and avoid crisps and sweets.

It is being seen as the latest tactic in the Government's battle against child obesity and follows the recent revamping of school menus. The leaflet is being published by the School Food Trust, a £15 million Government body set up last year to promote healthy eating in schools.

Chief executive Judy Hargadon said the advice was primarily aimed at informing parents about the changes to school meals.

But she said that advice on packed lunches was necessary as many parents do not opt for in-house school meals for their children.

She said: "Whilst we hope all parents will encourage their children to opt for the new healthy options available within schools, we accept that there will still be large numbers who will provide a packed lunch.

"The guide will hopefully ensure that, where this is the case, parents can make informed choices about how to ensure their children are receiving a balanced and nutritious meal."

She said an example of a nutritious packed lunch would be one that included wholemeal bread, fruit or vegetables, a drink like milk or pure fruit juice and a yoghurt.

But Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations (NCPTA), said the money should be spent on providing more hot meals for children, rather than leaflets about packed lunches.

She told BBC News: "We are putting a lot of money into a leaflet when we should be making sure that schools can provide a hot lunch for children.

"We are in danger of losing what for many children was the only hot meal they get to eat in a day."

Asked if any parents needed guidance on how to provide healthy lunches, she said: "I am sure that there will be some of them that do but the majority of us have a pretty good idea of what our children want, need and like."

An initial set number of the guides, whose packed lunch advice is already available on the trust's website, are set to be printed.

They will then be distributed via regional "healthy schools co-ordinators" to any headteachers who want to give them to parents.

A trust spokesman said there would not be an automatic "blanket" distribution of the leaflets to every parent.

He said: "We are trying to educate and inform parents and we are trying to work out the best way of getting that information to them."

A spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "It is important that parents support these standards by working with schools to ensure that their children are eating healthily outside schools and not bringing in junk food.

"Many schools already restrict sweets and crisps brought in from outside and the Schools Food Trust is working closely with schools to help them implement whole school approaches to healthy eating."