At last we have nutritional standards for school meals. Caterers must now prove that they can meet the nutritional standards.  Of course, there are different authorities in each country of the UK and thus, there are differences in the standards which schools are required to meet.

How should organisations audit the nutritional adequacy of menus?  Menus may contain individual foods and/or recipes. It is essential that nutritional analysis software used enables caterers to develop menus from both of these. The software must also enable caterers to calculate the nutrient composition of recipes, taking water and vitamin losses on cooking into account. If it does not, the nutrient composition of cooked recipes and any menus which use these items will be incorrect. What happens when recipes change or the supplier of a particular ingredient changes?  It is essential to be able to recalculate the nutrient composition of all recipes and menus which include the particular ingredient.  Do not think that recipes or ingredient suppliers will not change: they will. I worked in the food industry for nearly a decade. During this time, about 50% of recipes and/or ingredient suppliers changed in any one year.

In order to assess the nutritional adequacy of a menu, nutritional analysis needs to take into account the proportion of each menu item that is likely to be chosen by consumers. If it does not, how can one be sure that the menu is nutritionally adequate?

Obviously, you can do nutritional calculations after the event, from product sales. However, this does not prove that the organisation provides a menu that complies with the appropriate nutritional standards. It only shows whether the sample surveyed at that particular time made acceptable choices from the menu. Nutritional analysis, in accordance with sound mathematical principles, can be done before the menu goes “live”. Hence, one can make sure the menu complies with the appropriate nutritional standards before dishes are prepared and sold.