England Schools Showing Their Distaste for Fried Food by Limiting it Considerably

There will be new regulations for school food in public schools in England starting January 2015, which is designed to promote healthy eating. Among these new regulations include promoting drinking water and limiting fruit juice servings, as well as making it mandatory for schools to provide a choice of fruit and vegetables. The meals will have to include one portion of veggies a day and no more than two portions of fried food every week. (Currently, two deep-fried food items and three fried starchy items a week is the standard.) Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg explained that the new regulations would “continue to restrict unhealthy foods.”

These new regulations will be replacing the regulations introduced since famed TV chef Jamie Oliver’s food revolution campaign to improve school food standards. While the previous rules improved school food, the Department for Education deemed them too “complicated and expensive to enforce.” The new batch of regulations are intended for school cooks to have a bit more flexibility.

Here are the current standards:

• two deep-fried food items and three fried starchy items a week
• cake and biscuits only at lunchtime
• one portion of fruit and one of vegetables a day
• one portion of protein from meat. fish, and other non-dairy sources
• red meat: twice a week in primary schools, three times a day in secondary schools
• processed meat such as burgers, sausage rolls, meat pies once a fortnight
• low fat milk and lactose-reduced milk available daily
• sugar and honey contents of hot drinks limited to 5%

Here are the new regulations that take effect January 2015:

• one or more portions of vegetables or salad as an accompaniment every day
• at least three different fruits and three different vegetables each week
• an emphasis on wholegrain foods in place of refined carbohydrates
• an emphasis on making water the drink of choice
• limiting fruit juice portions to quarter pints (150ml)
• restricting the amount of added sugars or honey in other drinks to 5%
• no more than two portions a week of food that has been deep-fried, batter-coated or breadcrumb-coated
• no more than two portions of food that include pastry each week
• a portion of milk (lower fat and lactose reduced) to be made available once a day.

Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images