TEENAGERS are still choosing the chip shop over healthy lunches, according to a new study on school meals.
A progress report into a national scheme to improve the health of pupils has criticised secondary schools for not trying hard enough.
The study, by HMIe inspectors, is the first time secondary schools have undergone scrutiny on the Hungry for Suc
cess initiative.
And it warns that healthy school meals alone are not enough to tackle Scotland's obesity crisis.
Graham Donaldson, senior chief inspector, says: "Progress in secondary schools has been slower (than in primary].
"In part this relates to a lack of priority and urgency in implementing Hungry for Success in secondary schools."
He also blames the peer and commercial pressures of teenage culture and the fact that secondary school pupils can leave the school grounds at lunchtime.
The report also says more work needs to be done and reveals examples of bad practice.
It says: "A few primary and secondary schools were still, inappropriately, using sweets as rewards."
Other bad practice includes incorrect labelling of sandwiches, using only white bread and having no salad, home- baking being displayed more prominently than fruit and schools selling sweets after lunch.
Primary schools, on the other hand, are found to have performed well.
The report says: "The availability of fruit and vegetables in primary school lunches was good overall and in some cases it was very good.
"It varied in the secondary schools inspected where less than half of the schools actively promoted and encouraged the uptake of vegetables, salad and fruit."
The report also says that even where healthy food is provided in a school, it is difficult to know whether children are actually eating it.
It says: "Implementation of Hungry for Success has not provided comprehensive information about what pupils actually eat at school lunches – as some may leave food or regularly select less healthy choices."
Recommendations include improving uptake of school meals, which is stable at around 54 per cent, and commissioning research into what children actually eat during the day.
Adam Ingram, children's minister, said school meals in Scotland were getting better.
He said: "We know that changing teenagers' diets is one of our greatest challenges, but we believe that young people need to have the knowledge and freedom to make the best food choices possible.
"That's why early intervention is so important. We need to change lifestyles and habits if we are to achieve our aim of a smarter, healthier Scotland.
"Like HMIE, we know that improving food in schools is only one piece of the puzzle.
"Schools cannot solve Scotland's poor diet and related health problems on their own."
He said the Scottish Government was taking action but business, the public sector and communities had to work together to improve the nation's diet.
He added that a discussion was to be launched as part of developing a national food policy for Scotland.
David Eaglesham, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association, said: "It is very difficult to get a secondary school signed up to an issue in the way that you can a primary.
"Although you do have assemblies at secondary, you don't have the same degree of whole-school involvement.
"Also, there are probably a lot more messages that have to be got across in a secondary school, about drugs, weapons, safe sex and the world of work, and they are all competing."
HUNGRY FOR A HEALTHY DIETHUNGRY for Success was a report published in 2003 by a Scottish Executive panel.
It set out key principles to improve the quality of food prepared for pupils in schools across the country.
The report recommended all pupils have access to healthy choices, and that all schools must educate children on a healthy diet.
However, guidance on school meals published by the previous Scottish Executive under the Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition) Act last year was criticised for allowing children to eat chips every day with a meal, despite experts' advice to limit chips to three times a week.
Revised guidance, issued by the SNP Scottish Government later last year, took a step further in banning cereal bars, extending a ban on sugary fizzy drinks to include diet drinks, and limiting chips to three times a week.
