Fat and calories put back on nursery menus
Nurseries have altered their menus after they were found to be offering children too little fat.
A Trading Standards team from East Sussex County Council conducted a survey of the meals and snacks fed to under-fives at ten anonymous nurseries in the county. They found that food at only two of the nurseries provided adequate fat and only three provided adequate energy, while all the nursery menus failed to meet the appropriate requirement for iron.
The officers also found there was a tendency to apply healthy eating policies designed for school-age children to the nursery age group, while food portion sizes were often too large.
The survey report, Nippers' Nutrition, attributed a lack of knowledge among the nursery providers to a lack of adequate information and of regulation.
Fair trading officer Deborah LeShirley said, 'A year ago we thought we'd expand from the Jamie Oliver school meals review to look at nurseries. We thought they would be on the same lines as school meals, with too much fat and sugars, but instead there's lots of fruit and vegetables.
'Young children need small, rich meals, but in a lot of cases the healthy eating rules for adults had been passed down to children. So we were quite surprised.'
Most nurseries only had to make small changes to their menus to meet the correct standards, usually simply swapping snacks of vegetables to something fattier.
Ms LeShirley added, 'It took a bit of time to persuade the staff that they could add calories and fat back into the menus as well. Things like using butter instead of low-fat margarine, and feeding the children a snack of full-fat milk and crumpets, were advised by our paediatric nutritionist.'
All nurseries in East Sussex are to be sent a copy of the survey report with nutritional guidance.
