The School Lunch Checklist tool is quick and easy to use, and has been designed for everyone including schools, catering managers, cooks, nutritionists, dieticians and the individual.
What’s in your lunchbox?
23 July 2007
Cimex partnered with the School Food Trust to create a web-based tool that helps to assess whether the food and drink provided in schools meet the 2006 interim food-based standards.
The School Lunch Checklist, launched in July 2007, has been created following discussions with professional catering staff across the country over the last year, which looked at how the School Food Trust could help transform school lunches.
The tool is quick and easy to use, and has been designed for everyone – from schools, catering managers, cooks, nutritionists and dieticians to the individual.
To use the checklist tool, users simply go to www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk and click on the School Lunch Checklist. They then follow these quick and easy steps:
Step 1: Register and log in.
Step 2: Start a new week by entering your menu cycle details as well as the name of the school, date and approximate number of children you serve.
Step 3: Add the types of food and drink you provide during your menu cycle, by ticking the boxes or filling in the number of portions.
Step 4: Submit your entries and generate your report.
After entering these details, a report can be generated which can be viewed online or printed for your review.
The results use a traffic light system:
- a green light is shown if the lunch menus meet the food-based standards
- an amber light is displayed if more menu information is needed to give proper guidance (for example, two or three weeks worth of menus)
- a red light indicates an incorrect type or frequency of food. When a red light appears, helpful alerts to the key elements of the each food-based standard will be provided