Jane Clarke, the Times nutritionist who advised Jamie Oliver in his School Dinners campaign, welcomes new government guidelines banning junk food in schools, but warns that now they must deliver:

"This should make a very positive difference - in principle. It builds on the momentum of the Jamie Oliver campaign which set out to show caterers, school dinner ladies and cooks and government advisers both that something needed to be done and that it's possible to do it.

"But although it is a victory and shows that we are keeping the issue on the agenda, from my perspective - and I know Jamie would agree - we also have to see the Government deliver. They cannot just make this announcement and hope that we'll all go away.

"I'm slightly cynical that this might be another lip-service gesture, because it's going to be incredibly hard to enforce the regulation of nutrient levels in food, the minerals and vitamins. Are they going to have scientists in the dinner queues with probes?

"The idea that children eat food that is fresh is fantastic, although there's no legal definition as to what constitutes fresh. But we need to invest a lot more into the education of children, teach then firstly what they are eating and then why it's good for them. Which means bringing good old Home Economics, Food Science and Biology back onto the curriculum in a more inspiring way.

"We're also still pushing for more training, more money for school dinner ladies and for some schools to be given kitchens. We're still finding that some schools are being built new without kitchens in them.

"I'm also annoyed that they are focusing on foods that have high salt and fat levels. What about sugar? That seems to have got off the hook. Some of the foods that are likely to be exempt are incredibly high in sugar, so we're still going to have kids with dental caries and sugar-sensitive kids are going to be as wired as ever.

"A lot of it is down to education, down to families understanding why it's good for their children to have healthy food, how they can have healthy food at home so their children are used to eating healthier ingredients.

"I agree that there has been a drop-off in the number of children taking school meals although as far as I'm concerned the numbers are picking up again. There was always going to be a backlash so if that's the only backlash there is then it's a pretty minor one.

"There has also been some very heavy marketing of packed lunch food targeted at children. Parents are misled into thinking that these kids' products are healthy - whereas in fact they're usually packed with sugar."

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• 5 Christmas romance confessions
• Has champagne lost its sparkle?
• Your tailor-made Christmas