Nursery School Meals Project

A Project Looking at the Nutritional Composition of Meals Provided at 10 Nursery Schools in Hampshire

Hampshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service has been taking part in a nationally co-ordinated project looking at the provision of meals to children under 5 in nursery schools in the county, and the nutritional composition of those meals. The project has been co-ordinated by the Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS), following on from an initial project which was undertaken by East Sussex Trading Standards in 2007.

The timeline for the project is shown below:

• May 2009: Trading Standards wrote to 204 nurseries in the county, explaining the purpose behind the project, and asking for nurseries to complete and send back an expression of interest form.

• June 2009: 44 responses received from the nurseries. 10 selected at random to take part in the project.

• July 2009: Initial visits were carried out to the nurseries, where the project was explained in more detail. A questionnaire was left with the nurseries, which asked for specific information about their meal provision. The nurseries were also asked to submit with the questionnaire as much information about their food policy, menus, menu planning and ingredients as possible, as this would enable more comprehensive feedback to be given.

• End July/start of August 2009: the nurseries were asked to put aside a portion of each meal that would be representative of that consumed by a typical three year old child. Portions of all meals provided over the course of the week were collected comprising the mid morning snack, lunch, mid afternoon snack and tea – breakfast wasn’t included as part of the project.  

• August 2009: the food was sent to our Public Analysts at Hampshire Scientific Services for analysis, and was analysed for energy, fat, saturates, total carbohydrates, sugars, fibre, protein, iron, calcium, zinc and salt. The weight of each meal and the daily food total was also recorded.

• September 2009: the results were received from the Public Analysts and were passed to two paediatric dieticians from Portsmouth NHS Trust, who worked with us on the project. They interpreted the results of analysis and generated individual reports for each of the nurseries, plus a combined final report. The results were fed back to participating nurseries in December 2009 and January 2010. It is anticipated that an evaluation exercise will be undertaken in June 2010.

Results from the dieticians reports

The dieticians used the guidelines set out in the Caroline Walker Trust document entitled ‘Eating well for under 5’s in child care’, which is available through their website at www.cwt.org.uk.

As well as looking at the nutrient groups detailed above, the dieticians also commented on the provision of starchy foods, fruit, vegetables, dairy, meat, fish and alternatives and oily fish. Their reports contained information relating to the portion sizes of the meals provided, a table detailing the nutrient and food based standards which incorporated the results of analysis from the Public Analyst, as well as positive comments and areas for improvement.

A copy of the general report that was produced, incorporating figures representing the expected nutrient provision based on the Caroline Walker Trust guidelines, the average daily nutrient figures for the nursery, figures representing the nutrient provision once an adjustment to the correct daily weight of food had been made, and an indication of whether the guidelines for each nutrient had been met, is included as a link. All the information in this report has been anonymised, and doesn’t contain any details relating to the nurseries who took part in the project.

Nursery Schools Project Combined Final Report  309kb

The report summarises the main points at the end, but for ease of reference, some of the comments made by the dieticians are given below:

• Generally the nurseries provided interesting and varied meals and catered for children with special dietary needs

• 5 out of the 10 nurseries didn’t provide an afternoon snack and one didn’t provide tea. The guidelines from the Caroline Walker Trust recommend that children in full day care are provided with a mid morning and afternoon snack plus lunch and tea to enable them to refuel with energy and nutrients

• All nurseries provided adequate protein and calcium, and adequate quantities of fruit

• Only one nursery provided appropriate portion sizes. Many nurseries provided portion sizes in excess of the average, mainly due to large quantities of fruit and vegetables

• 7 out of the 10 nurseries achieved the salt recommendation, and 5 out of 10 provided the appropriate number of servings of vegetables per day

• None of the nurseries met the requirements for oily fish, meat, fish and alternatives at each meal, and starchy foods

• Some of the nurseries appeared to be providing meals and snacks based on adult healthy eating principles which are not appropriate for young children, who need relatively more energy, fat and protein, and less fibre than adults, to ensure growth and development

In summary, many of the nurseries provided food which was low in energy, fat, carbohydrate, zinc and iron, whilst having an over-representation of fruit and vegetables, corresponding to higher than expected portion sizes. Simple changes to menus can rectify this, and the dietician’s feedback included suggestions on how this could be done.

If you have any comments or questions regarding the project or the report, please contact Sue Powell, Principal Trading Standards Officer at Hampshire Trading Standards on 01962 833663.