Children prefer organic menus

[S.Annadana]

Children prefer organic menus
Source: icwales.icnetwork

Oranic fruit and vegetables could become a staple ingredient of children’s school meals following a pioneering West Wales project. Carmarthenshire Council has recently piloted organic menus and is now investigating making them a permanent fixture of school meals, reports Madeleine Brindley in Western Mail.This is believed to be the first scheme of its kind in Wales – other school meals services have previously only held one-off organic food events. But any extension of the trial will depend on whether the council can afford to buy organic produce within its existing £6.5m school meals budget.Carmarthenshire has been at the forefront of the drive to improve school meals in Wales, with more fruit and vegetables served daily alongside new healthy menus. Sales have risen by 40 % as more pupils opt for nutritionally-balanced lunches.



Jane Powell, information officer for the Organic Centre Wales, University of Aberystwyth, said, “The main benefits of using organic produce are environmental – there are certain health benefits, but these have not been strongly proven. Organic producers tend to have more bio-diversity and use less fossil fuels. The idea is that the school meals service should be providing benefits for the wider society.” Wales has the highest percentage of organic land, or land about to become organic – 5.5 % – as a proportion of total land in the UK. Some 15 % of the 4,639 organic and “in-conversion” producers in the UK are based in Wales.



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