Children should have free choice at school

School canteens do not have a responsibility to provide children with a healthy diet, according to a London medical director.

Dr Dee Dawson, a director at Rhodes Farm Clinic, a medical centre dealing with eating disorders, said children should be allowed to choose what they want from their school canteens.

"No food is bad and a baked potato piled with cheese and butter would be equal to a portion of chips. Five meals of chips a week is not enough to do children any harm.

"Anyway, it is the parents' responsibility to feed their child a healthy diet, not the school's."

Dawson also argued that the emphasis on healthy eating threatened to create an obsession with food among children that could lead to conditions such as anorexia.

She said: "I do not think we should be making children conscious of what they eat. We are breeding a culture of anxiety."

Beverly Baker, chairwoman of the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA), disagreed.

"Chips are fine, but only as part of a balanced healthy eating strategy," she said.

A spokesman for Stoke-on-Trent City Council added: "Eating foods such as chips every day would not be endorsed."

by Lucia Cockcroft lucia.cockcroft@rbi.co.uk

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 26 October - 1 November 2000