Foods high in fat, salt or sugar are to be banned from meals and vending
machines in English schools.
The ban, from next September, has been announced by Education Secretary Ruth
Kelly at the Labour Party conference.
Vending machines in schools will not be allowed to sell chocolates, crisps or fizzy drinks, Ms Kelly announced.
The School Meals Review Panel next week will give details of the nutritional standards for ingredients to be allowed in school meals.
Junk food scandal
"I am absolutely clear that the scandal of junk food served every day in school canteens must end," said Ms Kelly.
"So today I can announce that we will ban poor quality processed bangers
and burgers being served in schools from next September."
The review panel, an expert advisory group, was set up after a campaign to
improve school meals by TV chef Jamie Oliver.
In response, the government promised extra funding to bring the primary school meal budget up to 50p per pupil per day, with 60p for secondaries - and created the panel to set minimum nutritional standards.
These will be introduced from this term - and will become mandatory from September 2006.
Monitoring the standards of food served to pupils will be part of the responsibility of Ofsted school inspectors.
Poor quality
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Ms Kelly said it was "common sense" that
some sorts of foods should be excluded from school menus.
"For example, meat products that are made from reconstituted meat slurry
that bears no resemblance to the original product."
But plans to raise the standard of school food will not benefit pupils in local authorities where there is no school meals service.
Joe Harvey, the director of the Health Education Trust, which has advised the government, said it was time for schools to abandon their reliance on the quick fix of junk food.
On Five Live, he said: "Why is it that head teachers and governing bodies have been prepared to accept really quite high levels of profit from food and drink that they know very well is not good for the children that they're responsible for?
"They're not there to make a profit for the confectionery and soft drink industry. They're there to care for children."
Shadow education secretary David Cameron said: "We welcome this belated U-turn from Ruth Kelly. At the election ministers rejected Conservative proposals to extend a ban on junk food to vending machines, so this is a positive step."
Kitchen staff
But tighter standards were only part of the solution.
"They must be backed by sufficient resources for schools to provide
the extra staff and kitchen facilities required - two crucial elements which
are not being met in many schools."
Welsh Education Minister Jane Davidson said: "In Wales we have already
set up a new group which will be looking at how to improve the quality and
nutritional standards of school meals and to ensure we have a consistent and
coherent approach to driving forward improvements in food and nutrition in
our schools."
Nutritional standards were introduced a few years ago for meals in Scotland's schools, which typically spend more on ingredients than those in England.
The Northern Ireland School Caterers Association says schools there cook from fresh ingredients and do not rely as heavily on convenience foods as those in England.
'Deprived communities'
As well as presenting plans to improve school food, Ms Kelly also pointed
to the priorities of her forthcoming White Paper - including the need for
greater parental choice.
"Every parent should be able to choose the school that is right for their child.
"For too long, access to some schools has only been open to those who could afford to buy an expensive house next to a good school, while the rest were told to accept what they'd been given. There was nothing fair about that approach," she said.
She promised more good schools, improved transport, advice for parents and fair admissions.
And she emphasised the importance of city academies, "working at the
heart of our most deprived communities".
© Gigaware™ Ltd 2005