Hot school meals in Ireland - UPF's galore

An article in the Irish Times yesterday by Ruth Hegarty about the hot meals scheme in schools has sparked a lot of interest in parents.

In the interview with Ruth. a food policy advisor and lecturer she says that the level of ultra processed food (UPF) in our children’s school meals are very high, in general. She remarks on a chicken curry that has 75 ingredients in it - like how can you even find 75 ingredients in a curry?!

Firstly - I don’t think anyone disputes the goal of this programme - which is to provide a hot meal for all children in school in the fight against food poverty.

However … the manner in which the scheme has been rolled out is the problem. Our tax payers money is being used to feed our children ultra processed foods (UPF’s) on the daily in school. What will be the impact of this on a generation of our children?

Ruth (and many scientists and academics) says there are associations between UPF’s and :

  • obesity

  • various cancers

  • respiratory illness

  • cardiovascular illness

  • gastrointestinal issues

  • type 2 diabetes

  • higher risks of anxiety ….. etc.

    So by feeding our children this amount of UPF’s, 5 days a week for 39 weeks a year for 8 years, we are creating life long habits and addictions to this type of food.

    There was a huge reaction on my instagram when I posted about this topic as it will affect ALL parents with school going children across the country by 2030. Watch it here.

    While some people are happy with their lunch provider, others had this to say:

  • I am not surprised. So many predicited this.

  • I’ve been shouting this for a long time. Why are people obsessed with free? …It needs to change big time.

  • It’s just making UPF’s the norm - it’s very sad. There was a great opportunity there to feed kids real and healthy food.

  • my kids came off the school meals after a few weeks of trying them. Very poor.

  • very disappointed with the quality. My son won’t eat it any more.

  • cheap food being chucked into our beautiful kids bodies

    So we are calling for transparency from the school meal providers. Tell us exactly what our kids are eating please. Then we , as parents, can make our own decisions about whether or not to continue particpating in the scheme.


    Read the article here (it is behind a paywall - sorry)

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