sast-food-and-packed-lunch-policy-march-2022

SHERBORNE AREA SCHOOLS’ TRUST FOOD AND PACKED LUNCH POLICY

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Summary SAST seeks to provide its students with a high-quality catering service and in doing so will aim to supply food to the highest standards of food safety and will ensure compliance with The Requirements for School Food Regulation 2014.

We recognise the important part that a healthy diet plays in a child’s wellbeing and their ability to learn and achieve effectively. We believe that our schools, in partnership within parents and carers, can make a major contribution to improving children’s health by increasing their knowledge and understanding of food and helping them to make healthy food choices.

The Trust understands that sharing food is a fundamental experience for all people; an excellent way of nurturing and celebrating cultural diversity; and a bridge for building friendships and intergenerational bonds. SAST aims to promote and raise awareness of environmentally sustainable food production methods and socially responsible food marketing practices.

Why do we need a policy?

The government has placed a duty on schools to ensure that every child is healthy. Eating healthily is important because it will help children to: • • •

Be fitter and healthier now and later in life.

Support concentration.

Improved behaviour.

Application Application This policy covers the areas of: • Breaktime snacks including those brought from home • Drinks • School Lunches including packed lunches • Curriculum • Before and after school clubs and events • Events and celebrations The policy applies to all staff, pupils, parents, local governors, contractors, and partner agencies working across the Trust.

Food Hygiene SAST is committed to identifying potential food safety hazards and to implement any control measures necessary to reduce the risks to our business. In order to achieve this, the following conditions must be observed: •

All food will be produced in hygienic premises under hygienic conditions that do not expose the food or food contact surfaces to risk of contamination.

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Food contact surfaces and equipment will be kept clean and sanitised.

All food will be stored and processed under safe conditions and within the specified range of temperature according to statutory requirements and recommended approved guidance.

Break time snacks All Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 children are provided daily fruit or vegetables as part of the Government scheme.

SAST encourages all children within school to consider healthy snacks, such as fruit or vegetables unless recommended by a doctor on medical grounds (e.g. dietary need, diabetes etc.)

Drinks Water Clean filtered drinking water will be available for all pupils throughout the day and pupils will be encouraged to drink water at frequent intervals. All packed lunch pupils have access to water at lunch time meaning there is no need for an additional drink to be brought as part of a packed lunch. Sugary drinks should be discouraged wherever possible, and schools have the authority to forbid them if the Headteacher believes it appropriate to do so.

School lunches including packed lunches At SAST, all school meals will be prepared following the government nutritional guidelines.

The Trust will provide Universal Free School Meals for children in Foundation Stage two and Key Stage 1 and encourage parents to take up this offer. We are committed to providing food which is complaint with all national guidelines.

Staff will work with children to provide a clean, safe, attractive, and appropriate dining area. We believe that lunchtimes should foster the caring, friendly ethos that governs everything that we do.

Some families prefer to provide a packed lunch and we ask parents and guardians to ensure that packed lunches are as healthy as they can be. If children have a packed, the school will provide guidance to support parents to make informed choices to create it healthily.

Packed lunches provided for school trips as part of our Free School Meal provision comply with National Food Standards.3 Any meals taken as part of on or off school site residentials will provide a balanced and healthy approach to meals and, where possible, we will look to use off site providers that comply with the National Food Standards.

Government guidelines recommend that packed lunches should include: • • •

At least one portion of fruit and one portion of vegetables every day e.g., apple or carrot sticks.

One portion of meat, fish, or other source of non-dairy protein (e.g., lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas, hummus, and falafel) every day.

Dairy food such as milk, cheese, yoghurt or fromage frais everyday 3

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Only water, sugar-free squash, semi-skimmed milk, or smoothies.

Government guidelines recommend that packed lunches should not include: • • • • •

Snacks such as crisps on regular basis.

Confectionary such as chocolate bars, chocolate coated biscuits, sweets, or fizzy drinks.

‘Processed’ fruit i.e., ‘Winders’ or sugar/yoghurt coated fruit.

Processed cheese products i.e., cheese strings/Dairy lea snack corners.

Meat products such as sausage rolls, individual pies, cornet meat, sausages and chipolatas should be included only occasionally.

Curriculum Food, including its production and preparation, is an important part of the curriculum for all pupils and is taught across the curriculum through Science, PHSE, PE and Design and Technology. We reenforce our delivery of the national curriculum by holding a healthy school week annually which enables us to focus on all aspects of wellbeing including healthy eating.

Before and after school club / Holiday club Food provision at breakfast and after school clubs and holiday clubs are compliant with the National School Food Standards. Children in the clubs have regular opportunities to discuss healthy eating as part of their general activities.

Monitoring We consult annually with caterers, pupils, parents / carers, and staff and involve them in reviewing school meals. The results are used to evaluate the impact of the food policy and to further improve school meals.

Allergens SAST is committed to minimising the risk to health posed by common food allergens.

A food allergy is when the body’s immune system reacts abnormally to specific foods. The body sees the food as harmful and makes specific antibodies to 'fight off’ the allergens found in these foods. In the most severe cases symptoms may develop rapidly and can be life threatening, so requires urgent medical attention.

Controlling the Risk from Allergens To ensure the risk from allergens is controlled the following must be implemented: • •

Ensure that suppliers provide specific information about the ingredients of prepared foods and the presence of nuts.

Ensure that the Allergy Notice (If You Have a Specific Allergy or Dietary Requirement, Please 4

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Let Us Know…) is displayed in a prominent position.

Ensure that pupils and customers are aware any of the above allergens contained in prepared foods through correct labelling of foods.

Ensure that at the beginning of each academic year that confirmation of which pupils/students have an allergy or special dietary need and what allergy or special dietary need that they have has been requested from the school. That information should be shared with all staff to ensure they are aware which children have allergies.

Check labelling on all items, especially processed goods, packet mixes and frozen foods, to ensure that nuts are not present in the ingredients. Beware of items such as choc ices, as nut oils are often used to grease the moulds.

Check to ensure the packaging is intact and no potential contamination could have occurred.

Transporting Foods SAST recognises that not all schools have the facilities to prepare food on-site, and therefore, food must be transported from a kitchen off-site. Where this is the case, the Trust will ensure the following: Temperature Control •

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High risk foods must remain within temperature control during transportation and delivery.

Where this is not possible, hot, and cold food may be transported outside of temperature control for short travel times. For the purposes of the 2-hour (hot food) and 4-hour (cold food) rules, this travel time must be included in those maximum periods.

Cold food should be prepared immediately before transportation or stored under refrigeration to ensure thorough pre-chilling before despatch.

Hot food which is for reheating at the site of consumption should be quickly cooled and chilled before transportation.

Reheating, if necessary, should take place on arrival at the destination.

When transporting foods, the environment temperatures (i.e., vehicle, indoor/outdoor ambient temperatures) should be considered. On a hot day vehicle temperature may exceed 30°C. For journeys in excess of 15 minutes travel time, food should be transported inside insulated containers, together with freezer packs to maintain the temperature of cold food. The temperature of food must be taken on arrival and recorded on Food Delivery Record.

Hot trolleys should be plugged in in advance to ensure that they are hot.

Contamination Control • • • • •

Trolleys and roll cages used for transporting foods must be regularly cleaned and disinfected.

Raw meat must be transported separately or transported at the bottom of the trolley underneath ready-to-eat foods.

Any insulated boxes or containers used to transport food must be maintained in a clean condition and separate boxes must be used for raw and ready-to-eat foods.

All vehicles used for transport should be maintained in a clean condition.

All food should be suitably covered/wrapped to prevent any risk of contamination during transportation.

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