There are regulations on the nutrient composition of school meals to ensure that the menus help children build a healthy diet. Now, some children who choose to take a packed lunch to school, have certain items removed from it by the school, e.g. a chocolate bar. The chocolate bar is then returned to the child at the end of the day.

This practice is absolutely dreadful. Items that anyone has in their packed lunch on one day are irrelevant. It depends how often they have a particular item, what else they take in their packed lunch and their dietary intake outside school. Schools should work with children and parents, to guide them about better food choices for their packed lunch, rather than remove items from it. If a foodstuff is confiscated from a child’s lunch, they may return to class still hungry and not perform as well during the afternoon session as they would have done if they had been permitted to eat their lunch.