Chicken nuggets and other 'cheat foods' banished from school meals

The newly-appointed dietitian will produce a draft report for minister Dara Calleary by the end of 2025, but the 'cheat food' ban will commence from the start of the school year. Thinkstockphotos

Plans to eradicate “cheat foods” such as chicken nuggets or sausages from hot school meals will go ahead from the start of the new academic year, with a dietitian recruited to improve the programme starting in mid-September.

Social protection minister Dara Calleary announced in April that a review of the nutritional standards of the meals would be completed by a dietician following concerns about the standard of food being provided to primary school children each day.

He said this will include removing products that are high in fat, salt, and sugar when the new school year began.

The Irish Examiner has learned that the dietician has now been recruited and will start in their role from September 15.

They will produce a draft report, examining the scheme for Mr Calleary by the end of 2025.

Despite the dietitian not starting in the role until several weeks after schools return from the summer holidays, it is expected that junk food will be cut from the start of the school year. One senior source said: 

The ‘cheat meal’ option once a week is no longer available from September. 

“It is an absolutely massive scheme, and it is a brilliant scheme. It grew really fast, from a small pilot in 2019 to now including all primary schools.

“It is just a case of needing to take a step back, look at the nutritional standards and what needs to be done there.”

A source stated that the expansion of the hot school meal programme will “coincide” with the scheme’s nutrition being improved.

Guidelines for the hot school meal programme stated that “processed meat and processed chicken products, fried foods, foods cooked in batter or breadcrumbs, or foods containing pastry, should only be provided once a week maximum, if at all”.

These included food such as bacon, ham, sausages, chicken nuggets, and similar products. The guidelines added: 

Fried and other high-fat food products, such as chips, roast potatoes, fried potatoes, products fried in the manufacturing process, garlic bread, fried fish, or meal choices containing pastry should only be served a maximum of once a week.

However, concerns grew following suggestions that children were being given highly processed food more than once a week.

At the same event where he announced the nutritional review of the hot school meals programme, Mr Calleary confirmed that all primary schools would be eligible to avail of the meals from this September.

However, it was confirmed last week that the rollout would be delayed until mid-October.

The procurement process will begin this week and should be completed within eight to 10 weeks.

The schools affected by the delay will be able to avail of cold school meals from September while the procurement process is ongoing, it is understood.