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Chartwells has made a 20% reduction in sugar across its dessert menu in primary schools ahead of Public Health England’s 2020 deadline.

Chartwells achieved its 20% reduction target across its 1,700 primary schools by introducing new meal options and re-formulating their dessert menus. The chefs and nutrition team plan to identify how to further reduce sugar in its recipes.

The rate of severe obesity among Year 6 children has reached a record high for the fourth consecutive year so reducing the amount of sugar in children's food is an important issue. 

Meg Longworth, head of nutrition at Chartwells added: “It’s amazing to see such brilliant results from the Chartwells team and well ahead of the PHE’s 2020 deadline.

“This is testament to the ambitious commitment that Chartwells have made with local authority public health teams to deliver nutrition and food education in schools every day and our commitment to local campaigns and initiatives such as Sugar Smart and holiday provision programmes.”

In 2019 Chartwells successfully ‘nudged’ secondary school pupils to choose healthier options at lunchtime. The pilot scheme saw an 8% increase in the uptake of healthier options across Chartwells portfolio of 450 secondary schools. 

Richard Taylor, managing director of Chartwells UK, said: “Nutrition and wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do and we’ve demonstrated this throughout the year by introducing some really innovative and special campaigns into our schools.

“Taking home this huge accolade is very rewarding and means our hard work has paid off – thank you to all the judges for recognising our work.”