Almost a quarter of children are starting school already overweight or obese

Campaign urges better nursery school food

22nd March 2010, 10:19am

The Government must act now to improve nursery food and combat the rise in pre-school obesity, according to a survey of 1,000 parents conducted by Mumsnet for the Better Nursery Food Now campaign.

The campaign, run by The Soil Association and funded by organic baby food supplier Organix, launches a report today calling for the introduction of mandatory standards to ensure high quality food is served in all nurseries.

In England and Wales, there are over 600,000 children at nursery for up to 10 hours a day. In many cases, nurseries are responsible for the majority of a child's daily food during the working week.

Almost one in four children (22.8%) starts school already overweight or obese, which means they are more likely to suffer serious health problems like heart disease and cancer later in life.

Despite this, there are no clear nutritional standards in place for the food served in nurseries.

According to the Better Nursery Food Now survey 89% parents want to see legally enforceable rules for the nutritional standards of food in nurseries.

Eight out of 10 parents (82%) want foods like chips, sweets and chocolate, which are banned or restricted in primary and secondary schools, also banned in nurseries.

Almost all parents (95%) want to ban additives that are linked to behavioural problems or other health issues in nursery food, and 94% want to see compulsory nutrition and cookery training for nursery staff preparing and serving food.

Nine out of 10 parents (88%) want government funding available to help nurseries improve food provision, while 69% want to see a government department made responsible for monitoring the quality of food provided.

The survey found that only 34% of parents said they were happy with the food at their nursery and 16% complained that the standard of food at their child's nursery was poor, with children being given junk food, too many convenience foods and not enough fruit and vegetables.

Pamela Brunton, Soil Association policy manager says: "The younger the child, the more vulnerable their health is to the effects of poor quality nutrition. The Government's own research shows that a quarter of our opportunities to prevent obesity occur when a child is at nursery. It is vital that the government put regulation for nursery food at the top of their agenda, to ensure that every child gets the start in life that they deserve."

Anna Rosier, managing director at Organix says: "It's vital we give pre-school children a healthy start in life, which is why its so shocking that there are no clear nutritional standards for nursery food, no compulsory training for staff serving food, no agency to monitor the quality of food, and no government department promoting good practice. We believe the current scenario is unacceptable and we want changes made urgently."

"We worked with the Soil Association to do the research on food served in schools which ultimately lead to the School Dinners Campaign, and it is not acceptable that nurseries are left behind – and that the health of our new generation is left to chance. That's why we need better nursery food rules, now."

With MP Joan Walley, the Better Nursery Food Now campaign has tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) in parliament asking for mandatory standards for the quality of food served to children in early years daycare. (An EDM is a petition that only MPs can sign to show their support for an issue and push it up the political agenda).

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