New government plans will ban deep-fried food and high-sugar items from school menus. Experts welcome the move but warn of rising costs for already stretched schools.
It is difficult to argue against the principle. Children who eat well learn better, concentrate for longer, have better attendance and are less likely to develop the chronic health conditions that will cost the NHS billions in the decades to come. The evidence linking nutrition to educational outcomes is robust and has been building for twenty years (Sorhaindo and Feinstein, 2006; Food Standards Agency, 2024).
The government's 2026 plans to overhaul school menus — including a ban on deep-fried food and high-sugar items — are therefore welcome in principle. The question, as always, is whether the policy design matches the ambition.
The government's school food review — launched in late 2025 and with initial proposals published in spring 2026 — centres on several key changes to the School Food Standards, which govern what schools in England are required to serve.
The headline proposals include:
The proposals are broadly aligned with the recommendations of the National Food Strategy (Dimbleby, 2021), which called for a comprehensive overhaul of the food environment children inhabit — including schools.
Here is where the warm glow of ambition meets the cold water of fiscal reality. School caterers — particularly in maintained schools operating on fixed per-meal budgets — are already under significant financial pressure. The cost of fresh ingredients, compliance with allergen regulations, staffing and energy has risen substantially since 2021.
Moving away from deep-fried, highly processed food toward fresh, nutritious alternatives sounds straightforward. In practice it means higher ingredient costs, more skilled kitchen staff and in many schools a significant capital investment in kitchen equipment that has not been updated in decades (School Food Trust, 2024).
Without additional funding — and the government has not yet confirmed any — the risk is that schools improve the theoretical quality of their menus while simultaneously reducing portion sizes, variety and overall meal quality as they try to absorb the extra costs within existing budgets.
School food policy is inextricably linked to inequality. Free school meals eligibility — still covering only around 23% of pupils in England despite significant expansion during the pandemic — means that for many of the most disadvantaged children, school lunch is the most nutritious meal they eat all day.
If reforms raise the quality of school food for some children while pricing others out — through increased top-up charges or reduced meal quality at the budget end — the policy will have worsened the very inequalities it was designed to address.
The government must ensure that any school food reforms are accompanied by an expansion of free school meal eligibility and adequate funding for schools to implement the changes without cost-cutting compromises.
While the policy develops, there are things families and schools can do immediately to improve the nutritional environment for children.
Schools can audit their current menus against the existing School Food Standards — which are already stronger than many schools realise — and identify quick wins. Parent-teacher associations can advocate for better food and fundraise for kitchen improvements. Families can reinforce healthy eating habits at home and ensure children arrive at school having eaten a proper breakfast.
The evidence is clear: what children eat directly affects how well they learn. This is not a peripheral concern for education — it is central to it.