As part of the Big Lottery funded Food for Life Partnership the Health Education Trust and the Soil Association, have produced a useful guide to seasonal nutrient swaps, to assist menu planners who want a flexible approach to menu compliance whilst achieving seasonality.
Background
The Health Education Trust (HET) researched and developed the seasonality swap chart, which was designed and produced by the Soil Association for the Food for Life Partnership with funding from the Department of Health. This case study outlines the work undertaken by the HET to determine seasonal nutrient swaps for menu planners. The resultant guides provide month-by-month tips for meeting the nutrient standards in primary school† meals using fresh, local produce and separately a quick guide for schools that focuses on seasonal vegetables to help them to meet the nutrient-based standards for iron and folate. The purpose of both these publications is to help caterers to:
1. Develop and adopt seasonal menus
2. Select seasonal fruit and vegetables that can be appropriately swapped to ensure that the substitutions made do not impact on compliance.
Seasonality and seasonal swaps:
One concern regarding a seasonal approach to menu planning has been how to ensure maintaining compliance with the nutrient-based standards. To address this, HET used the seasonality chart (www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/resources/seasonalitychart) developed by the Trust as a start point to research and develop a booklet for the Food for Life Partnership of seasonal nutrient swaps for menu planners.
www.foodforlife.org.uk/Resources/Teachingresources/Resourceview/tabid/79/ArticleId/16/Seasonal-Nutrient-Swap-for-Menu-Planners.aspx
The seasonal nutrient swaps for menu planners booklet offers a clear step-by-step guide to making seasonal substitutes to a compliant menu without significantly altering the nutrient content. It shows how to swap seasonal fruit, vegetables, meat and fish in and out of the menu with minimal impact on compliance with the nutrient-based standards for protein, dietary fibre, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, calcium, iron and zinc.
The seasonal nutrient swaps for menu planners booklet contains a food and nutrient directory at the start which lists 9 fruits, 29 vegetables and 8 meat and fish that are produced in the United Kingdom and highlights the nutrients that each food supplies in high amounts. For example, apples high in vitamin C, broccoli (purple sprouting) is high in vitamin C and folate. Beef is high in iron, zinc and protein. The second section looks at each nutrient individually, by month of the year. There is a list of all foods which are categorised as high or medium in that nutrient and whether they are in season or available. Availability is defined as produced in Britain but just coming in to or out of season.
Background and methodology for seasonal swaps: How foods are categorised as high, medium and low nutritional value
1) The nutrient content of all British grown foods available at each time of year were collated and average portion sizes compared to the nutrient-based standards for school lunch.
2) Each food was colour coded to show whether they were high, medium or low source of each nutrient.
i) High value: was defined as if an average portion contained more then 1/3 of the lunchtime requirement.
ii) Medium value; if an average portion contained 1/6 of the lunchtime requirement (2 medium products will supply the same as one high value product).
iii) Low value; if an average portion contained less than 1/6 of the lunchtime requirement.
3) Each product is further classified as ‘in season’ i.e. when food is widely available and fresh or ‘available’ i.e. when a food is just coming in to or out of season.
Example of seasonal menu swaps
Maintaining compliance with the nutrient-based standard for folate in March
| In Season | Available | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| High Source | Medium Source | High Source | Medium Source |
| Purple-sprouting broccoli, Spring cabbage, Cauliflower, Kale | Savoy cabbage | Brussels sprouts, Beetroot | Leeks, Parsnips, Red cabbage, Celeriac, Raw white cabbage, Onions fried in oil |
If an accompaniment of spring cabbage is on the menu but is not popular with pupils, it can be swapped for cauliflower or beetroot and raw white cabbage without impacting on the standard for folate. Similarly, savoy cabbage could be swapped with red cabbage or leeks. Adding some spring onions and spinach can also increase the iron content of a current dish.
Maintaining compliance with the nutrient-based standard for iron in June
| In Season | Available | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| High Source | Medium Source | High Source | Medium Source |
| Beef (mince and other cuts), Lamb (mince), Endive | Lamb (other cuts), Herring, Spinach, Spring onions | None | Pork, Cabbage (spring greens), Watercress, Loganberries |
A dish made from beef mince can be swapped with one made from lamb mince.
(Note; the iron content of minced lamb is slightly lower and the saturated fatty acid content slightly higher than that of minced beef). Serving some spinach as an accompaniment can also increase the iron content of a meal.
A quick guide for schools: Seasonal vegetables to help you meet the nutrient-based standards for folate and iron
In recognition that the nutrient-based standards for iron and folate can be challenging to meet in primary and secondary school, HET developed a quick guide, which was designed by the Soil Association, showing which vegetables are the best sources of iron and folate in each month of the year;
www.foodforlife.org.uk/Resources/Teachingresources/Resourceview/tabid/79/ArticleId/103/Nutrient-swap-poster.aspx
† although the raw data is available, there is currently no booklet available for secondary schools.
