A pilot to test England’s new school food standards triggered a 15% decline in uptake of meals, with children rejecting healthier options in favour of a packed lunch, a caterer has revealed.

The results of the six-week trial, which took place at a Brighton primary school, have prompted concerns that the government’s proposals, though well-intentioned, could end up having a negative impact on children’s health.

The new standards, which ban deep-fried food and sugar-laden puddings, were launched with fanfare on Monday and welcomed by chefs and campaigners including Jamie Oliver, Emma Thompson and the former government food tsar Henry Dimbleby.

Luke Consiglio, chief executive of The Pantry, an education catering company based in Middlesex which feeds children in 170 schools, led the new food standards pilot on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE) at Glebe primary school in Brighton.

He agreed the changes to school food standards were a positive step forward, but warned: “Despite these good intentions, there’s a real risk that this will actually have a negative impact on children’s health.”

At the end of the pilot with amended menus, Consiglio said uptake had dropped by 15%. Children did not like the loss of ham and cheese sandwiches, baked desserts and cheese jacket potatoes, opting for packed lunches instead.

When Consiglio and his team carried out a spot check on a dozen packed lunches, all of them included crisps and a chocolate bar. Catering costs also went up by 20p a meal, due to more expensive ingredients.

“By making standards more prescriptive and rigid, we could see many familiar and well-liked foods fall off daily menus and subsequently push away the very parents and children we’re trying to support and attract with healthier options at mealtimes,” said Consiglio, who is also on the board of the School Food People, which represents the school food sector.

Another school food caterer, Philippa Terry, whose company provides meals to 70 London primary schools, said the new standards do not address the funding gap that already exists in the school meals sector.

The government currently gives £2.61 for each free school meal in England – rising to £2.66 in September – compared with £3.40 in Wales, £3.30 in Scotland and £3.10 in Northern Ireland.

“The question we’ve been asking is why there is this disparity – that the other UK nations are able to fund their meals at a much-increased rate? The £2.61 doesn’t come anywhere close to what the cost is.”

Like Consiglio, she is worried that pupils will vote with their feet, especially in secondary schools. “It’s got to be food that children want to eat. If we put these standards in, and it’s not well loved or understood by pupils and parents, that’s going to drive them to packed lunches which have no nutritional content.”

From there, uptake of school lunches will drop, costs will rise and more catering companies will go to the wall. “By July there’s six more caterers that are going to close down because they can’t make the service commercially viable,” said Terry.

There are also concerns about monitoring compliance. The former governor and school food campaigner Andy Jolley said: “It’s positive that they are doing something, but unless there’s proper monitoring it’s not going to make any difference.”

School food standards are widely ignored, he said. To ensure that schools are complying with the revised standards, the government would need to set up an independent body to carry out checks. “The problem is no one wants to commit money to it.”

The government’s new proposals, which are out for a nine-week consultation, promise a “robust national enforcement system”, full details of which will be announced in September. Schools will also be required to publish their menus and food policy, and appoint a lead governor to be responsible for school food.

“The way to improve school meals is to increase the funding so you can provide better quality food in greater quantity. Children are going hungry because the portion sizes have got smaller. Without the extra money, it’s not going to make any difference. It’s doomed to fail,” said Jolley.

A DfE spokesperson said: “Our new school food standards were thoroughly tested with caterers, schools and nutritional experts to make sure they are deliverable, realistic and don’t have detrimental knock-on effects to parents and pupils.
“Throughout this process we found that many schools across the country are already creating affordable, delicious meals that meet these standards, with some seeing increases in uptake of up to 220% following improvements to the menu. Several saw the cost of meals fall. “Different schools trialled different options, as you would expect of any trial, and the findings informed the proposals we published this week – including a phased approach that will give caterers time to adapt. We want to hear from as many schools, parents and caterers as possible through the consultation to make sure we get this right.”

Russ Ball, head chef at Pokesdown community primary school in Bournemouth, saw uptake of his school dinners triple in his five years there. “I’ve always believed that great school food doesn’t have to cost the earth – by cooking seasonally from scratch and buying smart, we serve over 300 fresh, nutritious and delicious meals that the children love every day, within budget.”