Supermarket cafe’s offering deals to help tackle the ongoing cost-of-living crisis are not recommended school diets as many of the meal options are considered unhealthy, experts claim.
Currently, guidelines for schools across the UK see that each meal should include one portion of fruit and vegetables a day and that manufactured meat products should only be served once a week.
However, in Asda’s superstore cafe’s, meal options for kids include fish fingers and chicken nuggets, with only two in five hot meals listing a vegetable or salad side.
Whereas, in Morrisons, only one in five meals includes a vegetable side, however the grocer does offer a single serving of fruit with each meal.
These supermarket initiatives includes Asda’s ‘kids eat for £1‘ scheme and Morrisons deal where kids eat free in addition to the price of an adult meal, for families ‘on a budget’, are part of the government’s Help for Households campaign which encourages struggling families to take advantage of these supermarket discounts.
As a result, an Asda spokesperson said its aim was to “ensure that those who would normally rely on a school meal aren’t left without,” however, experts have claimed this falls below the schools food standard.
READ MORE: Free school meals: how are retailers supporting families this summer?
Professor Greta Defeyter, who has worked in schools to tackle holiday hunger told The Guardian: “The majority of these foods are ultra-processed, which have been linked to obesity and cancer. The token nod to vegetables is the serving of peas and one meal being accompanied by a salad.
“The government should not be promoting menus primarily consisting of ultra-processed foods. Families should have quality, nutritious food all year round.”
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