School Menu Monitor

We keep an eye on the menus of primary schools to ensure that our nation’s children are being fed healthy and wholesome food that meets their health and nutritional needs, will power their mind and bodies through the school day and will help them grow and thrive as tomorrow’s adults.

An example of something we look out for is the presence of processed meat on the menu… it serves no useful nutritional purpose and recent extensive studies have caused the World Health Organization (WHO) to officially classify processed meats as a Category 1 Carcinogen. What does this mean? Processed meats, some examples are below, have been proven to cause cancer… “Category 1” means there is a strong causal link meaning that processed meat is rated in the same highest cancer causing category as cigarette smoke!

Examples of processed meats include:

So, given the cancer risk these foods pose and the fact that there is no nutritional reason for their being used then why are they on the menus of some schools? Why indeed! There is no justifiable reason as far as we can see so we are contacting the relevant schools to inform them of the World Health Organizations recommendations regarding removing processed meats from the diet and suggesting they update their daily meal plans accordingly.