Children shun 'costly' school meals

The number of children eating school canteen meals has fallen in three quarters of council areas, the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) said.

Caterers blamed the new healthier food which costs more to cook and was introduced after TV chef Jamie Oliver campaigned for better quality school dinners.

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

But LACA chairman Sandra Russell warned that catering in secondary schools could become a thing of the past.

"We cannot expect to reverse an embedded eating culture overnight nor can we convert teenagers to a healthier regime by force," she said.

"We are in danger of the secondary school meals service fragmenting or dying altogether if we are not careful."

She said caterers were "totally supportive" of the long-term aims of the new rules for healthy school meals.

But she added: "The introduction of such radical changes to young people's dietary habits is too draconian and too fast.

"The service is under immense pressure and already being seen by many private contractors as a non-viable operation and our concern is that soon it may be for public sector caterers too."