The introduction of Nutrient-based Standards into maintained primary schools in September 2008, and into maintained secondary and special schools in September 2009, has had a significant effect on the whole provision of meals to schoolchildren across the country.

We started the 2008/09 school year with all of our primary school menus compliant with the food-based and nutrient-based standards, whilst continuing to serve tasty and popular meals. In addition, when the standards were extended to include school lunches in secondary and special schools, we were at a natural advantage: our model of healthy, tasty meals prepared from fresh ingredients meant that as challenging as the standards are, we’ve been able to adapt existing menus to fit, rather than having to remove unhealthy options and start from scratch.

To assess menu compliance we use a menu analysis tool called Saffron. This enables us to demonstrate that the meals we serve contain the appropriate levels of nutrients such as iron and zinc, and not excessive amounts of saturated fat, salt or sugars.