Jamie Oliver's healthy school dinners still a turn off for pupils as ministers set to miss targets

The Government is set to fall woefully short of its target of getting just over half of all students to eat lunch in the canteen.

Just 37 per cent of secondary and 43.6 per cent of primary pupils choose school dinners.

Campaign: Jamie Oliver's war on junk food has not persuaded all pupils

In secondary schools uptake slumped by 0.5 per cent in the last 12 months and a five per cent dip over all last year.

But there as signs that the youngest children may finally be changing their habits and starting to leave the packed lunch box at home.

Uptake at primary schools has risen by 2.3 per cent – the first increase since junk food was banned in 2006.

The new rules require schools to use more fresh ingredients and less processed food.

Celebrity chef Mr Oliver, who has been working to improve the quality of meals for three years, said the figures meant his campaign had finally ‘turned the corner’.

He said yesterday: ‘I always said this would take 10 years to really see results but it looks like the corner has been turned, certainly in primary schools, in just three years and that’s a fantastic achievement.

‘It’s the result of hard work on the part of the School Food Trust and also thousands of dedicated dinner ladies, parents, teachers, head teachers and councillors all over the country who passionately believe that we can’t go back to the days of feeding our school kids reheated food that was lacking in nutritional value.’

But the Government had set the target of getting 52.7 per cent of pupils to eat a healthy canteen lunch.

Prue Leith, chairwoman of the School Food Trust, which carried out the survey, said: ‘Teenagers are independent young people and changing entrenched eating habits does not happen overnight. ‘

After Mr Oliver’s campaign won huge public support, ministers banned junk food from school canteens and vending machines.

And in 2006 new rules to make food healthier were introduced in English schools.

The chef said: ‘There’s a long way to go, and governments of all persuasions need to continue to commit to long-term investment if these figures are to improve even further over the next few years, particularly in the light of rising food costs which are causing many families to struggle.

‘Overall, this is a good day for school meals and this news goes to prove that comments about kids not liking the proper real food and voting with their feet are inaccurate and unhelpful in the long-term.

‘It’s an incredibly important time in British health. Anything like this is going to have teething problems but everyone has to be single-minded to make it work and not to lose faith over small hiccups. I feel we are heading in the right direction.’

Ms Leith added: ‘This is not a quick fix. It is a long-term challenge that neither the School Food Trust nor caterers will shy away from.

‘But we have to succeed. What is the alternative? Back to Turkey Twizzlers?’

Last year’s downturn, which saw the number of children eating school meals fall in three-quarters of council areas, was blamed on the soaring cost of the new healthier dinners.

The new Government rules require greater use of fresh ingredients cooked from scratch.

The average price per head of primary school meals now stands at £1.66, an increase of 1.8 per cent on last year, and a rise of around 8 per cent in the past three years.

Secondary school meals now cost £1.78, a rise of 3 per cenr on last year, and average rise of almost 10 per cent over the past three years.

In the past year, the School Food Trust and LACA have been working together on a number of joint initiatives to promote healthy meals to parents and children.

Sandra Russell, LACA chairwoman, said the results were encouraging, although the decline in secondary schools was still a cause for concern.

She said: ‘We must all continue to work together to address the challenges of encouraging young people to eat more healthily.

‘Part of this process has to be gaining closer working partnerships with Head Teachers to adopt a whole school policy.’