Nursery World - A Unique Child: Nutrition

As packed lunches look set to become more common, Dr Patricia Lucas assesses their quality and launches a survey to find out more

Packed lunches in primary schools often have too little protein and too much sugar, salt and saturated fat. White bread sandwiches dominate, and sweetened drinks are common. No surprise then that less than 2 per cent of them meet nutritional standards. Less well-documented, and less often discussed, are packed lunches in early years settings. Are they any healthier? And are they about to become more common with the advent of the 30 hours’ free childcare? We hope you will help us find out.

In 2012, a Children’s Food Trust survey of 57 early years settings recorded the contents of 118 pre-school packed lunches and found that 42 per cent included crisps and 24 per cent had confectionery, and on average they contained twice as much added sugar as meals provided by nurseries.

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