Oliver's Healthy Dinners Campaign Backfires

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's school dinners revolution appears to have backfired with pupils turning their backs on expensive canteen food, schools watchdog Ofsted has said.

Ofsted said some pupils felt the new fare was too expensive and others simply preferred to go to the chip shop at lunchtime.

The report, Food In Schools: Encouraging Healthier Eating, comes one year after new rules came into force banning junk food from canteens in the wake of Oliver's campaign for healthier meals.

Ofsted found that fewer pupils were eating school dinners in 19 of the 27 primary and secondary schools visited for the inspection.

The report said: "The take-up of school meals had fallen overall since the introduction of the new food standards. Reasons for this decline are complex and include lack of consultation with pupils and parents about the new arrangements in schools; poor marketing of the new menus; the high costs for low-income families and a lack of choice of what is offered. If this trend continues, the impact of Government's food policies will have limited effect. Several headteachers believed that the cost of a meal was prohibitive."

Children's Minister Kevin Brennan said schools should take notice of the report.

He said: "We are in this for the long-term. Cutting childhood obesity and unhealthy eating needs the backing of every local authority, school, teacher and parent in England. We are urging schools to make the most of our £477 million investment in raising nutritional standards and keeping prices down."

(CD)