Caterers say school meals report makes unfair comparisons

School caterers have branded as "misleading" and "inaccurate" a recent report into primary school meals that calls for greater investment in local sourcing and organic food.

The Soil Association's Food for Life report claimed that the daily amount spent on each child's school lunch is sometimes as little as 31p, compared with 60p spent in prisons.

But a Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) spokeswoman said the comparison was "irrelevant and misleading".

Unlike prison catering, school meals have not been funded or subsidised by central government since 1980. All public and private sector school meal providers must run the service as a commercially viable operation, so parents primarily fund the service, she said. And most are not prepared to dig any further into their pockets.

Jim Walker, managing director of Initial Catering Services, said the 31p figure was inaccurate, and the report might actually harm children if it led to more pupils eating packed lunches instead of hot meals. Research by the Food Standards Agency recently found that 80% of packed lunches failed to meet Government nutritional standards, he said.

The Food for Life report called for new nutritional standards based on nutritional content rather than the food groups. It argued that the amount spent on ingredients per child must double to pay for organic and local food, and estimated the Government needs to make an extra £200m available.

The report claimed that, in the long run, this would help prevent diet-related diseases such as diabetes, strokes and heart disease, which cost the NHS at least £2.5b a year.

It also asked Initial, Sodexho, Scolarest and food companies to agree to a code of conduct and to cut out food with additives in schools.

LACA chair Vivianne Buller broadly supported the targets in the report, but added: "These targets can only be realistically met through a radical change in the food culture of this country, in terms of public attitude towards food, Government funding for school meals, and regulatory reform that helps rather than hinders local procurement."

Nevertheless, both LACA and the Soil Association highlighted schools and authorities which were successfully using local producers. Some had overcome supply problems by forming consortiums. These included South Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Northumberland, and Devon councils.