11 September 2008

Curriculum Packs And Nutritional Advice

£151 million for food technology" areas, a free cookbook for students to tackle obesity, and compulsory cooking lessons for all 11- to 14-year olds by 2011.

It sounds great.

But what Labour giveth on one hand, it letteth in the private sector on the other.

Labour hasn't taken action on a "range of potentially misleading claims and poor nutritional advice" contained in so-called curriculum packs sent to schools by food companies and trade associations ... advice such as bakers saying pupils should eat six slices of bread a day ... or the British Soft Drinks Association telling pupils that refilling water bottles was unsafe and "can lead to contamination."

The Department of Health, dieticians, and the Food Standards Agency have dismissed many of the statements as not based on independent evidence, as highly selective, or plain ol' misleading.

Christine Blower, acting general secretary, the National Union of Teachers: "We are concerned that children are not exploited or misled by marketing of food products which make claims that are at best ambiguous or open to interpretation."

No comments: