Government school fruit scheme fails to impress

Leading nutritionists have criticised the Government's National School Fruit Scheme as an ill-researched waste of money.

The campaign was relaunched for the fifth time by Health Secretary John Reid at the beginning of January. Reid unveiled an extra £77m from the Department of Health to roll out the scheme to all four- to six-year-olds in England by the end of the year.

But Dr Helen Crawley, a registered public health nutritionist at London Metropolitan University, was critical of the scheme. "One of my fears is that parents feel it lets them off the hook of feeding fruit and vegetables and they don't feel guilty about giving their kids crisps," she said.

"The problem is, this is the biggest thing the Government is doing to solve unhealthy eating and it thinks it is going to solve the problem."

But she added: "It is difficult to argue against the scheme, as it is better than doing nothing - but is it the best way to spend the money, as there is little evidence to back it up?"

The Government claims that a quarter of all children and their families ate more fruit at home after their school joined the scheme, but Crawley doubted this. "There is no strong evidence to say this is the case."

The health lobby needed more teeth to be effective, added Crawley. "What we need more than anything is a nutritionist at the Department for Education."

Then, she said, faster action could be taken on issues like banning advertising of unhealthy food to schoolchildren and improving the quality of vending. A nutritionist could also formulate nutritional guidelines for pack lunches.

Her comments were backed up by Professor Tom Sanders, head of nutrition at King's College London, who told the Independent last week that the Government was wasting its money and that the project would have a negligible effect on kids' health.

He said that a case study by King's College found that while children ate the fruit they were given, it did not reduce obesity, improve nutrition or encourage children to eat more fruit.