Cucina's Steve Quinn to discuss school dinners on Channel 4's Dispatches
Cucina boss Steve Quinn will share his views on the state of UK school dinners on Monday's Channel 4 Dispatches programme.
The education caterer's managing director was interviewed as part of an investigation into the variations in the amount spent on school dinners.
The programme surveyed 190 local authorities and 108 academy schools and found appreciable variations, with some opting out of providing daily hot meals altogether.
Quinn, whose company operates 40 chef-led restaurants in state schools around the UK, had the opportunity to share his thoughts on the issues that continue to undermine progress in the area of school food.
In Quinn's view, chief among these is the lack of close monitoring of the Government's nutritional guidelines for schools, mandatory in all maintained schools.
He said that while companies such as Cucina continued to invest in wide choices of quality food cooked from scratch at every site, others were opting for cheaper, lower-quality bought-in ingredients, to the severe detriment of good nutrition in schools.
Quinn added: "We are proving that with the right kind of business model, school caterers certainly can present restaurant-quality food in schools."
By Janie Manzoori-Stamford
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