School Lunch - CHOICE # 365

The Consumer Council has called on suppliers of primary school lunch to assume greater responsibility in the promotion of healthy diet.

The Council considers food suppliers who cater to the lunch of hundreds of thousands of pupils every school day, bear an important and indispensable responsibility in safeguarding the health of these young consumers.

In Hong Kong, the childhood obesity rate is rising alarmingly. The statistics show that 1 in 5 primary school children is obese.

It is estimated that about 70% of whole-day primary school pupils order lunch boxes from the food suppliers (approximately 25 major suppliers in the market) on every school calendar day.

As more and more primary schools turn whole-day schooling, the number will grow further - and a greater responsibility of lunch suppliers in ensuring food nutrition to this young generation.

The Council has recently conducted parental focus groups to gain a better consumer perspective, and released a report in this issue (March) of CHOICE on the selection of school lunch suppliers.

The report is particularly timely during this time of the year when lunch suppliers are being considered for the new school year.

First and foremost, lunch suppliers are urged to always strictly follow the Nutritional Guidelines on School Lunch for Primary School Students developed by the Department of Health (DH), when preparing menus and lunch boxes.

Second, they should actively promote healthy eating at schools. For instance, as food suppliers they can provide nutrition information both in general and in particular of their products to parents and students.

They are also in a position to disclose the various types of order statistics on the choice of lunch boxes to help parents support students to adopt a healthy eating habit.

Third, they should collect from the various stakeholders - schools, parents, and students - their feedback on lunch provision regularly and systematically, analyse them and make outcomes of discussion available to stakeholders.

On the part of the schools, they are urged to establish specialized committee on school lunch with the participation of parents, ensuring the operation of the committee to be fair, just and open.

The DH will issue a checklist this (Thursday) afternoon on the steps to be taken to select a suitable lunch box supplier.

Schools can also strengthen the health and nutrition education of parents and students.

Parents, on the other hand, are urged to actively participate in the selection of suppliers and monitoring of the quality of lunch boxes .

Parents are reminded that during a trial lunch session, they should consider both the taste and nutrition of the lunch boxes. At home, they should practise healthy eating habit and act as role models for children.