Children's Food Trust introduces menu checking service for schools

The Children's Food Trust has launched a new service to help schools guarantee that their menus meet the new school food standards announced last month.

The menu checking service will give schools and caterers support in ensuring their menus are compliant with the new legal requirements that come into force next year.

From January 2015, all local authority maintained schools and academies and free schools set up before 2010 and created from June 2014 onwards must meet the new food-based standards.

Claire Wall, senior nutritionist at the Children's Food Trust, formerly known as the School Food Trust, said: "Whether you are developing one or multiple menus it can take a lot of time and effort to make certain your menus come up to scratch.

"Our menu checking service will give schools confidence they are compliant with the standards and that their food provides the energy and nutrients children and young people need to do well.

"Our team will check your menus, using their years of experience working with schools and early years settings, and recommend improvements and to support schools in offering the best service possible."

The Children's Food Trust advised the expert panel on school food standards and pilot tested the new standards with schools and caterers before they were launched. The Trust also produced the voluntary food and drink guidelines for early years settings on behalf of the Department for Education.