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School food reform is on the menu

Ministries follow EU lead in promoting healthier eating habits

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
September 12th, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Táňa Dunajská serves up soup to U sv. Štěpána students. In line with EU standards, the Health Ministry wants schools to vary lunches.
A troop of fourth-graders piles into the cafeteria at the U sv. Štěpána elementary school in Prague 1, where cook Stanislava Vajdíková ladles out generous portions of cauliflower soup and Hungarian goulash.
Inherently Czech staples such as pork with dumplings and cabbage, desserts made with cheese curds and roast chicken with potatoes make up the menu for the rest of the week.
On Fridays, “lactoovovegetarian” day, a meat-free meal of a baked potato topped with broccoli and cheese along with a side of fresh fruit fulfills the week’s quota of fruits and vegetables.
“I don’t know how healthy the food is,” Vajdíková says, “but when it has veggies in it, the kids generally don’t eat much of it.”
To combat the institutional affinity for rich, protein-heavy food in local school cafeterias, the Health and Education ministries have joined forces to promote reforms in school cooking as part of a long-term European Union agenda to promote healthier eating habits among youth.
“It’s necessary to admit that the current system of school dining requires changes,” says David Bartůšek, a Health Ministry adviser. “The results of our studies show the national norms for legumes, vegetables, fruit and fish are not being adhered to.”
Recommended daily food allowances need to be updated, as they were only last discussed in 1991, says Michael Vít, deputy health minister and chief public health officer.
“One in five children in Europe is currently overweight,” Vít says. “Obesity in children is on the rise here and in the rest of Europe.”
While most current food quotas do not dramatically differ from those of other EU countries, Vít says more meat is consumed here than in some other European countries.
“The recommended protein allowance is higher than the international norm, but it’s not a question of an exponential exceeding of all allowances,” Vít says.
Politicians passed a law on school dining in 2005 that allows cafeteria lunches to vary from national nutritional quotes by 25 percent. That way, cooks have more flexibility to adhere to new nutritional trends and regulations, Vít says. Free fats commonly used to fry foods are an exception — cooks are not allowed to go above 17 grams of free fat per meal.
Despite the meat- and carbohydrate-heavy menus, Vít says schools serve high-quality meals that exceed EU standards.
“The school dining system in this country is exceptional, and not just in comparison with other European countries. In many countries, school lunches are served in the form of buffets, which offer fast food refreshments with extremely low nutritional value,” Vít says.
Contrary to popular belief, “children are definitely not just eating cream sauces and pork with dumplings and cabbage every day,” he says.
School lunches are just one small part of the government’s attempts to instill healthy eating habits among the youngest members of society. The Health Ministry is awaiting the results of an EU-wide adjustment in recommended daily allowances on all food groups. Those new European Union standards will be used to adjust the Czech standards, Vít says.
Experts from the nutritionist community are also getting involved. In August, Health and Education ministry experts met with representatives of the national Nutrition Society (Společnost pro výživu), an association concerned with raising nutritional awareness. That came after the group wrote a letter urging the Education Ministry to provide nutritional education opportunities for school cooks.
“We will attempt to incorporate the views of these not-for-profit organizations into the process of changes in school dining,” Bartůšek says.
Officials also expect the EU’s planned nutritional reforms to have wider implications. More nutritional labels will be added to food packaging, for example, Vít says.

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com


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