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LAST UPDATE | 11 Apr
THE NUTRITION LEVELS of hot school meals provided to school pupils are to be reviewed by officials from the Department of Health, education minister Helen McEntee has confirmed.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, McEntee said that the government “just need to improve it”, and revealed that a nutritionist from the Department of Health will examine the nutrition of the free meals.
The department of education, along with the department of social protection, have said that they will remove food that is high in saturated fat, sugar, and salt from the school meal menus immediately.
Up to now, this food had been permitted once a week, when selected by the child’s parents.
The Hot Schools Meals scheme is an addition to the Schools Meal Programme that according to the government aims to provide “regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them”.
The Hot School Meals element was introduced in 2019, beginning in 30 pilot schools.
A further 713 primary schools have been added to the Hot School Meals Programme from today, bringing the total number of schools in receipt of hot meals to 2,850.
All DEIS primary schools are now eligible to receive a hot meal and last year, with government plans to expand the programme to all primary schools by 2030.
However, the programme has faced backlash, with teachers and health experts voicing concern over the kind of food being served to children.
As well as the nutritional content, experts have taken issue with the origin of the ingredients and the waste produced by the scheme, which they say was “thrown together” too quickly.
Last year, the HSE’s national clinical lead for obesity last month voiced concerns about the ability of schools to order ultra-processed food.
The Department of Social Protection has said the nutrition standards were developed by a technical working group led by Health and Wellbeing Programme, in consultation with Safefood and the Healthy Eating and Active Living Programme in the HSE.
It has said they follow the Food Safety Authority of Ireland dietary recommendations.
The written guidelines state that processed meat products, fried foods, foods cooked in batter or breadcrumbs or foods containing pastry, “should only be provided once a week maximum, if at all”. This, it says, includes bacon, ham, sausages, and chicken nuggets.
It stipulated that on the day when processed meat is served, schools should aim to provide a healthier alternative.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Claire Byrne show, social protection minister Dara Calleary said that his department will “engage with” reports from the nutritionist examining hot school meals.
He added that the “vast majority” of meals currently available to students are “what I would consider nutritious”.
In a statement, he said that “nutritional standards are a priority for me and for the Government”. I have asked for a review of the scheme’s nutritional standards and this will be conducted by a dietician based out of the Department of Health. I have asked for a report on the nutritional standards be submitted to me by the end of the year.”
“In the meantime, we will remove food that is high in saturated fat, sugar, and salt from the school meal menus. Up to now, this food had been permitted once a week at most and only when selected by the child’s parents. There is a lead-in time for a change like this, so it will happen by September this year.”
“Under the Programme for Government we will continue to expand and improve the Hot School Meals Programme. We will also ensure that suppliers adhere to robust guidelines on the nutritional value of meals and the dietary requirements of students. We are also working to reduce food waste and utilise recyclable packaging.”
McEntee said that both the education and social protection departments “need to make sure it’s the best it can be”.
“Already, the benefits that we’re seeing are absolutely phenomenal - as I said, we have children coming to school who are able to learn who weren’t able to before,” McEntee added.
The review into hot school meals is expected to be formally announced this morning by social protection minister Dara Calleary.
“Nutritional standards are a priority for me and for the Government. I have asked for a review of the scheme’s nutritional standards and this will be conducted by a dietician based out of the Department of Health. I have asked for a report on the nutritional standards be submitted to me by the end of the year.”
“In the meantime, we will remove food that is high in saturated fat, sugar, and salt from the school meal menus. Up to now, this food had been permitted once a week at most and only when selected by the child’s parents. There is a lead-in time for a change like this, so it will happen by September this year.”
“Under the Programme for Government we will continue to expand and improve the Hot School Meals Programme. We will also ensure that suppliers adhere to robust guidelines on the nutritional value of meals and the dietary requirements of students. We are also working to reduce food waste and utilise recyclable packaging.”
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Maybe examine the contracts in relation to the meals, cheapest ingredients doesn’t mean best available nutrition.
@Matt D: it’s not great if they contain large amounts of offal and animal waste. More suitable to pet food than school dinners for the poor.
@Lance Taylor: What a sad life you live
@Ger Whelan: better than being a troll whelan.
@Lance Taylor: for the sites biggest troll your not very good at it
@Lance Taylor: Some offal, properly prepared can be pasty and nutricious, while widely available here in our butcher shops years ago, seems to be looked down on nowadays but is still part of a diet in other European countries.
@Ger Whelan: you eat and talk much offal
@Athena: east Europe they only eat offal and all that pet food but we should not inflict it on our poor children
@Athena: He doesn’t care. He’s trolling suggesting only the poor will eat these school meals.
@Athena: one of my favourite childhood meals…lambs kidneys…I can still taste them now..
@Lance Taylor: troll off Lank
@Lance Taylor: Nothing wrong with chicken hearts, lamb liver or bovine tongue. Ask a dietician, why don’t you?
@Athena: ah knack bag. That would make you seriously ill!! Glad I am vegetarian.
@Lance Taylor: offal is perfectly edible by humans even though it seems to be frowned upon in Ireland (except by Mr Leopold Bloom esquire who seems to appreciate fine cuisine).
@Lance Taylor: You certainly enjoy getting your kicks from trolling on The Journal and more than likely other websites too. If that is your buzz then all the best to you. If that is how you deal with being such a pathetic person then I hope it helps. Enjoy your kicks. Reply with your sad tolling. I dont mind. It will just emphasise what a sad and pathetic specimen you are. You know deep down that you are one of society’s lowlifes and that hurts you. This is the reason you troll. You don’t have it in you to change yourself and improve your life so you abuse others instead. Best of luck. One day you might begone a man.
If the government is to provide hot lunches, they should be as healthy as possible.
If parents want to feed their kids something else, let that be their decision. They can send in their own lunch.
But if they want to avail of a free one, it should be a healthy one.
No government should be patting themselves on the back for providing high fat, highly processed lunches to children.
@Mary L: Talking sense like that will not be tolerated here Mary.
@Mary L: the dinners were meant for children not getting enough to eat from their parents. Most of the dinner ends up in the bin. When you give away stuff for free, people become very fussy. Calories are nutriention.
I think we’re all wary of anything that’s tampered with by Helen. But this is good, a sensible tweak or two will do a power of good. We’ve come so far along the road in ensuring these kids have a hot meal in their bellies we might as well go the last furlong & make sure it’s the right food
@Buster Lawless: arsehole
@sean weir: can you spell any other words?
@sean weir:
Anus is the correct spelling.
@Buster Lawless: oh Buster the cloning troll! Here to inflict your misery and mischief. REPORTING AGAIN
@Lance Taylor: good morning brother
@Ekumbe Adesiyan: oh hello my friend. I hope all is well and you are enjoying our glorious sunshine? Peace be with you
@Tina: not for the troll no
@Tina: I have all his accounts MUTED Tina, it’s all the one poster, multi account troll, rian o Callaghan, Lance Taylor & sean weird—- all just the 1 muppet. He comes up with new ones weekly– just MUTE
@Lance Taylor: good man yourself,sick of his trolling
@Mary Linton: excuse me don’t be dumping me on with you multi account you sad little man ,and the name is Seàn Weir
@Mary Linton: BUSTER
@sean weir: Mary and Buster are the same creatures so beware of it
@Mary Linton: Princess the funny thing is I have a single account kid.
@Lance Taylor: iss verrery butoful day dey wan de ooga booga ousside wiv de missus
@Ekumbe Adesiyan: good god. You’re really annoying with this disgusting racist nonsense trying to cosplay some racist notion of how a black person speaks. Just yesterday you were totally different. We see what you are up to troll. Was the Charles account finally banned?
@Ekumbe Adesiyan: Go back under your bridge, racist Troll.
@Franno: why no like me? Is it because i is black? For yourrs informatshun, da many african spek de pigeon emglish, ignorant wypipo don no dis
@Jack Hayes: be silence silly craker mans
@Ekumbe Adesiyan: Ignore those trolls absolutely disgusting racism from them.
@Rian O’Callaghan: is jellus my big pens
@Ekumbe Adesiyan: I hope she is a delightful black woman and you bring her to church at the weekend? A good strong family and church makes you stronger here in Ireland
@Mary Linton: I don’t come on comments much and didn’t know you can mute people so I’ve just muted him. But the b*tch sessions between the “lads” is entertaining.
@Lance Taylor: is correct brudder. me need to put te hi-vis on hers so me can finds her wit te lights off hwhah is funny no
@Ekumbe Adesiyan: haha yes she must Be black as the ace of spades!! Splendid work
@Tina: yes Tina, bottom right of the post there is 3 little dots….press that & gives you the option of MUTING. Those accounts, sean weird, Lance Taylor etc./ o have em all MUTED, I don’t need to see much juvenile nonsense
@Thomas O’Brien: ….not to be confused with “annus”….a year!
You’d think this would have been the very first requirement from the get go. Who the hell signs off on these things? Just unbelievable incompetence.
@RP McGuinness: Mad eh. We stoopy
@RP McGuinness: you were on here saying the whole thing was a disgrace and availing of it was a hallmark of lazy parenting the other day, now the meals aren’t nutritious enough for you. Which is it?
Surely a healthy menu of options should have been the first requirement. We aren’t the first country in the world to do this. Why not copy the Mediterranean countries menus. Always in Ireland we never copy what works elsewhere we always have to do it the hard way. It’s a great idea but as usual I’d messed up be civil servants.
@Toca Stories: Teaching portion size is important as well.
@thomas molloy: agree totally
Send your kids to school with a healthy lunch not that free garbage
@Rian O’Callaghan: arsehole
@Rian O’Callaghan: Probably feeding them bugs
@Rian O’Callaghan: 100%
@sean weir: So you don’t think kids should have healthy meal. Ok got it.
@Ekumbe Adesiyan: Well if that’s what you people like work away.
@Rian O’Callaghan: troll away buster
@Rian O’Callaghan: why would you care ?
Sure you just said they were riff raff .
@sean weir: How dare you call kids riff raff disgusting thing to say. Please take that back they are children. Very disappointed in you.
@Rian O’Callaghan: you obvs never tasted de fly birgers. is delishus!
This woman couldn’t even keep the country safe so why was she put in charge of looking after children? I wouldn’t let he mind a pet rat let alone make decisions for childern
@Kevin Daly: She’s Fine Gael Royalty, the children don’t matter, she must be status, no matter her ineptitude!
@Kevin Daly: is the country not mainly safe? Are you afraid all the time? I wonder – who has ever kept the country safe, by your definition?
@Ciaran Foster: not really due to a slot of stabbings and rapes. There has been more of this in the last few years then my 50 years on this planet
Need to do the same with hospitals
@Raymond Burke: I was in CUH for a week last year ,food was great
@sean weir:
Were you getting your Anus checked out.
@Thomas O’Brien: What age were you when you began talking out of yours?
@Jack Hayes:
I suffer from mutism, how about you.
Why not set up a simple kitchen in each school, maybe employ a few people to cook and serve the food. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy, maybe soup , spaghetti Bol, chicken curry, a bit of fruit, salad etc and a yogurt for dessert.
I’m sure it could be done, relatively cheaply with a bit of local volunteering and fundraising.
@Costigan Family: my kids school is a portacabin, a kitchen be a stretch. And the kids don’t get the hot meal so I’d actually love to know what it’s all about.
@Costigan Family: good ideas don’t work in this country
In my sons class, 23 out of 27 have reverted to taking in their own lunches as the ones being provided were absolute garbage, cheap ingredients and usually cold as they were being provided by a catering company 65km away!
Potato cubes served with most meals might aswell just serve chips chicken nuggets not healthy. Glanmore have contract for my kids schools out of about 15 meal choices I’d say 5 are not bad rest are junk food
With obesity at crisis levels in this country, Shame on those that set this up, where you have to ask, in whose interest?
A decline in asylum pull the other one the government would say anything
@John Kenny: People will believe anything, they voted this shower back in again, didn’t they?
Ok. All you oh its a great idea yeah just take a look at the lunch bag company see what they supply to our school
@Karen Marten: Word salad, mmm
@Karen Marten: It is a great idea. If you don’t think so then don’t let your kids eat it and problem solved
Saw a clip of Japanese concept in relation to school dinners. Amazing variety of foods and emphasis on eating as a whole.French school meals also are of a very quality with huge emphasis on variety health and quality.
No junk food or easy options.
https://thedailbar.com/menu-pages/
Could the kids get something similar?
Nutritious, delicious and subsidised
@Mike Doe: yes they are.
Went to secondary school in UK in 70’s. Come from a farming family background where good food, was very well prepared, fresh and plentiful.
School dinners were supplied and subsidised and everything was cooked in school kitchen , fresh on the day by the ‘dinner ladies’.
3 courses, , starter; soup usually, main, meat, (fish on Friday) potatoes and 2 veg, desert , apple tart , fruit ,and ice cream , milk pudding etc.
Never saw anything in batter or breadcrumbs, don’t think they had a deep fat fryer!
Was used to very high standards at home and school diners were always edible , fresh and edible with ‘seconds always available, if you could get them before they were all gone.
Hardly beyond the reach of one of the wealthiest and best food producing countries in the Western World
A shame we don’t have any food culture of our own really, looking at school meals from around the world is an interesting glance! Probs the people making the standards here don’t have any to begin with
@Thesaltyurchin: eh coddle
@Joe Beirne:
What’s wrong with coddle, I grew up on it, you can’t beat it.
@Thesaltyurchin: we do. Deep fried and processed food.
Is there anything the thick Irish can get right ?
@Johnny frankson:
I’ll tell you tomorrow.
McEntee
There is a huge issue with food quality ,food waste and schools being billed for extra meals only for most of them to be thrown out. This seriously needs to be addressed. Schools are not allowed to have sandwich or wrap option….it has to be hot food with low quality
The example to follow is how food is prepared, served and educated about in Japanese schools.
Give them a few xenical after ther processed sh#£e. A nice balanced diet.
Can Journal look into the cost of the roadworks in temple bar that caused luigi malones to close? I’d imagine it could be another wacko money pit and no value for money. Very interesting dcc haven’t responded, that’s telling.
90% of them vaping
It doesn’t leave much else to feed them. Still she says Dublin is safe so I’m not too worried
Guaranteed the meal choice will be halal approved before every one else is catered for and not necessarily for European or Irish plates.
have your say