More fruit and vegetables

Not less than two portions of fruit and vegetables should be available per day per child.

What is specified in this standard?
Not less than one portion of fruit and one portion of vegetables or salad must be available per day per child. In practice this means that sufficient portions must be available to be able to offer a portion of fruit and vegetables to every child. However, it is accepted that providing, for example, a piece of fruit every day for each pupil who takes a school lunch could result in wastage. To avoid this, if you are providing fresh fruit it would be appropriate to have readily available as an alternative, tinned fruit or juice, to ensure that where demand exceeds your expectations, every child is able to have a portion of fruit.
Why this standard needs to be in place

• To increase children’s fruit and vegetable consumption. Fruit and vegetables are a good source of essential nutrients, have lots of important health benefits and can displace food that is high in fat or sugar.
• National surveys show that children’s intake of fruit and vegetables is currently less than half the recommended minimum daily amount of five portions a day.

What this food group includes
Fruit and vegetables in all forms including fresh, frozen, tinned and dried or as juice.

Fruit: includes fresh fruit, fruit tinned in juice, fruit salad (fresh or tinned in juice), fruit juice and dried fruit. Good examples of fruit-based desserts include: fruit crumble, apple pie, fruit sponge, apple cobbler, fresh fruit jelly, baked stuffed peaches, summer pudding and yoghurt/custard with fruit. Fruit used as decoration, or jam added to a dessert, does not count towards this standard.

Vegetables: includes all fresh, frozen and tinned varieties whether offered as a salad, cooked vegetables, or as part of a dish (for example, broccoli quiche or moussaka). Baked beans and pulses are also included but not potatoes (which are classified as a starchy food).

What is a portion?
For adults, a portion of fruit or vegetables is 80g, but there is currently no recommended portion size for children. Practically, we suggest a good guide would be to serve at least half an adult portion (i.e. 40g) to primary pupils, and move towards an adult size portion (i.e. 80g) for secondary pupils. The table (below) gives examples of how these portions translate into kitchen servings.

Suggested Portion Size

Serving suggestions

• Include fresh fruit as well as raw vegetables in salad bars.
• Serve fruit in a variety of ways for dessert, attractively presented and in appropriate sizes for different age groups. For example: whole fruits, fruit salad and fruit quarters.
• Add salad ingredients to sandwiches.
• Try to offer two hot vegetables with the main meal as well as a salad bar.
• If the service is a cash cafeteria offer ‘meal deals’. For example, include vegetables and a piece of fruit in a main meal price; include a piece of fresh fruit with a sandwich.

Good practice

• Serve fruit with other food. For example, grapes with cheese and crackers, or shortbread with stewed fruit or fresh strawberries.
• Make sure tinned vegetables are the type with no added sugar or salt.
• Make sure tinned fruit is in water or juice rather than sweetened syrup.
• Aim to serve a variety of seasonal fruit and vegetables every day.
• Although baked beans are popular it is important not to serve them daily and offer a variety of vegetables on your menu.

There are more tips and recipes ideas to encourage pupils to eat fruit, vegetables and salads here.

Does this standard apply across the school day?
In addition to the portion of fruit and portion of vegetables at lunchtime; fruit and vegetables must be provided in any outlet on the school premises where food is made available. This can include fresh, dried, frozen, tinned and juice products.