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In a statement issued last night, LACA (Local Authority Caterers Association) has come out in support of comments made by Jamie Oliver that were reported in the Guardian newspaper on March 6th.

In it, LACA agrees with the point he made about the Government ‘watering down policies designed to ensure school food is healthy’ and says it shares his frustration that the Government does not require a single set of standards to apply for all schools.

LACA believes that there is serious potential that the progress made in improving school food over the last six years will be de-railed by the lack of positive action by the Government to reverse this decision and ensure universal Nutritional Standards for all pupils.

Lynda Mitchell, LACA Chair, said: “The inconsistency in the application of standards will inevitably lead to a significant negative effect on the school meals service, potentially wiping out the years of effort by school caterers as well as the considerable investment that has been injected into its improvement.

“LACA has been campaigning since early last year to persuade the Government to re-consider its policy but to no avail so far.

“In April 2011, LACA wrote to all MPs calling on them to take action against the exemption of academies and free schools. LACA stressed that with academies being open for longer hours, providing a wider range of meals from breakfast to after-school food, it was vital that the standards apply equally to these establishments to ensure parents remain confident that school food remains the best possible option for their children.

“Despite approaches by LACA to the Education Secretary and other ministers, the concerns of school caterers, as well as those of many other influential bodies and individuals, have fallen on deaf ears.

“Despite the Education Secretary’s confidence that academy head teachers can be trusted, LACA has advised the Government, both directly and through the media, that the standards are already being breached or relaxed in some academies and free schools to the detriment of their pupils.”

“Without positive legislation to ensure that the same standards apply for all schools and academies, nutritional standards will fade into obscurity over time and the progress made in improving the eating habits of children and young people will be undermined.”

“Jamie has spoken out vociferously through the media as well as direct to ministers, about the threat this situation has to the future of healthy school meals.

“Many of those in the industry who have worked so hard to provide the world class service we have, are equally frustrated that a two tier system is being allowed to develop and can see how this could impact on not only the provision of demonstrably healthier meals but also on the future of the industry.

“He is clearly not about to let this issue, which he clearly feels very strongly about, drop. Quite the contrary, he appears more determined and passionate than ever before to bring his influence to bear to safeguard the healthy school food revolution. And so is LACA.

“We welcome Jamie’s continued commitment to school meals and we are right beside him in the fight to persuade the Government to amend the regulations and to provide one set of standards for all schools.”

Guardian Article, March 6th

Under the heading ‘Jamie Oliver accuses coalition of 'killing' Britons with health policies’, yesterday’s Guardian newspaper reported comments by Jamie Oliver made while on a visit to Australia. Here is the report:

Government inaction over obesity is "killing" Britons, Jamie Oliver has claimed in a strongly worded new assault on the coalition's public health policies.

Referring to the Government's approach to the growing obesity crisis, the chef and food campaigner went further than his previous criticism of health secretary Andrew Lansley and education secretary Michael Gove, whom Oliver has accused of watering down policies designed to ensure school food is healthy.

"We are lacking real leadership in Britain, sadly, and it's killing us – literally. That whole Government – they lack any imagination," he said in Australia, where he was launching an addition to his network of Ministry of Food centres.

"They haven't done anything that will even touch what's been announced today."

In October he provoked Lansley's ire by condemning his new "national ambition" to tackle obesity as "worthless, regurgitated, patronising rubbish". The lack of Government action in it represented "a complete cop-out", he said.

The Department of Health responded by maintaining that it intended to reduce obesity and save lives. "We have strong plans to reduce levels of obesity by 2020. These include giving councils a ring-fenced budget for public health, working with industry to show people how many calories are in the foods they eat and working with business on plans to help people eat fewer calories.

“There are encouraging signs that the level of obesity among children as a whole is stabilising", said a spokeswoman.

Food campaigners backed Oliver, however. "Mr Oliver is absolutely right", said Tam Fry, spokesman for the National Obesity Forum and founder of the Child Growth Foundation.

"The Labour government had the grace to listen when he made the case in 2005 to feed pupils with healthy food. But the current Government has not. When it was told by its own obesity advisers the measures it should continue with to make our children healthy, it not only didn't listen but it fired the advisers."

A diet of substandard food will lead to health problems, with some young people becoming obese then predeceasing their parents, Fry said.

He criticised the coalition's reliance on the so-called "responsibility deal", which lets food firms avoid regulation in return for voluntary action to improve their products and make it easier for consumers to eat fewer calories.

Malcolm Clark, co-ordinator of the Children's Food Campaign, which is backed by health, education and children's charities, said: "It's a shame that Jamie isn't our health secretary – he wouldn't share the Government's fear of taking the steps needed to tackle the nation's obesity crisis and poor dietary habits.

"Instead of robust action to protect our health, the Government gives us weak, industry-friendly policies which have little chance of changing people's long-term behaviour. Austere times is not an acceptable reason for lacking an effective public health strategy."