A call was made today for more primary children to take advantage of school meals to help tackle obesity.
It comes after it was revealed that nearly a fifth of primary one kids in Dundee are overweight or obese.
A study by Cancer Research showed that 19% of city P1s are overweight, obese or severely obese by body mass index.
Ibukun Strachan, facilities business improvement manager for Tayside Contracts — which provides school meals to city youngsters — called on parents to send their children to the dinner hall instead of the shops.
She said: “The percentages are shocking. What we see is that children who make the wrong nutritional choices at a young age tend to continue to make those wrong choices when they move on to secondary school.
“You see them going to secondary schools and they are down at the shops in a big group eating bags of donuts and sweets, sharing a bottle of juice.”
Ms Strachan said Tayside Contracts takes steps to ensure that meals served in schools are nutritionally balanced and low on sugar.
She added: “All of our meals comply with national nutritional guideline requirements for food and drinks.
“Kids get a variety of options, which involve a daily choice between three hot meals and a sandwich option.
“We have full-time nutritionists whose job it is to ensure the meals we are offering are healthy.
“We often hide healthy foods in the meals. For example, our pizza bases are made with carrots included.
“We only use ingredients that are low in things like sugar and fat and we also use locally-sourced produce. It’s a much healthier choice than what is being offered at other places.
“We try and cater for as many tastes as possible. Obviously there are always people who will be more fussy or prefer to have a packed lunch.”
Ms Strachan said that all the firm’s menus are available online and she recommended that parents take a look and utilise the recipes.
She added: “We want to help people make the healthy choices and we want to empower the youth of Dundee to make better choices.
“We organise healthy eating talks and we also invite the parents of primary one kids to actually come and sample a school meal with their children so that they know what it’s all about.”