Around a third of school canteens in Spain offer in their menus more fried and less vegetables than recommended: 29.15% of the centers include three or more fried rations a week and 37% serve two or less times fresh vegetable In the first case, the recommendation is to reduce it, at most, to two; In the second, expand it, at least three or four. In addition, 7% of the dining rooms never supply fish when it should be done between one and three days per week and 15%, double, do not meet the recommendation to add four or five rations of fruit a week in the menu or either They serve at least one ration of vegetables and another of legumes.
The data is extracted from Last report of the National Food Chain Office of the Food Chainjust published by the Spanish Agency for Food Security and Nutrition. The study includes the situation of 5,095 centers with school dining room in 14 autonomous communities during the year 2023 and reveals a worsening with respect to previous reports. For example, in 2021 almost all school canteens (99.68%) only offered drinking water at lunchtime, and in just two years, that percentage fell by 2023 below 85% (83.58 %).
A decree on progress
The Ministry of Social Rights and Consumption, department on which AESAN depends, is finalizing a decree where the guidelines established by the Agency will be included as mandatory “hardening the criteria and frequencies of foods most harmful to health.” The regulations, which still have no approval date, will also prohibit sugary drinks or other alternative drinks to water during meals in schools.
“The data shows the need to regulate the dining rooms to guarantee at least five healthy meals a week to all children. Food at an early age has a very important role in the development of childhood and, therefore, it is an issue that should not be left in mere recommendations, ”says Andrés Barragán, general secretary of consumption and play, to Eldiario.es. “The health of childhood – JUZA – cannot depend on a zip code.”
30% of school canteens do not have supervised menus by a professional accredited in nutrition and dietary
There are more worrying data. The majority (71.08%) of the centers studied do not fry food with adequate oil. They do not use olive oil or oleic sunflower oil, as recommended. In addition, a third of the dining rooms abuse the precooked dishes by offering them four or more times a month. And in the same percentage they are not supervised by professionals with accredited training in human and dietary nutrition.
Although excess weight in schoolchildren of this age has decreased by 4.5 % in the last four years in general, Aladino points out that it continues to affect one in three minors (36.1 %). And that improvement in childhood obesity data (15.9%) and overweight (20.2%) has not been perceived in families with lower income (the limit is set at 18,000 euros), among which excess excess Weight rises to 46.7%. This prevalence has been constant since 2011.
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