Dubai: Parents pack around 195 school lunches a year for each of their children, but these lunches that are often packed with care lack the nutrition needed for a young body to flourish.
A study by the School Trust Fund in the UK found that pupils who bring packed lunches, on average, consume more high-fat meat products and non-permitted food and drink items that are high in sugar, fat and salt.
For this reason, Jessica Sawyer, a registered dietician and a nutritionist who works at Primavera Medical Centre in Dubai, said parents should have guidelines on what they should put in their children’s lunchboxes.
During an event by the Dubai Healthcare City on Monday, Sawyer said that while guidelines for school canteen were launched in 2011 by the Dubai Health Authority, there are no guidelines that help parents pack a healthy lunchbox meal.
“The school canteen guidelines specify the nutrition content of food sold in school canteens, give specific examples of healthy meals and even include regulations for safe food handling. But how many guidelines are there for lunchboxes? Zero,” she said.
Since there are no guidelines to follow, Sawyer said parents make common lunchbox mistakes that include wrongly relying on packaged foods, perishable items, repetition and embarrassing food.
Parents relying on packaged food can result in a lunchbox that is high in saturated fats, sugar and salt, while including items that perish quickly like dairy and proteins is not recommended without icepacks in the soaring temperatures in Dubai.
“Dairy and meat foods will not be safe to consume after two hours so it is important to put ice packs with the food or freeze the lunchbox to prevent items from perishing. Schools also have the responsibility to provide safe areas to store lunches away from the heat and sunlight.”
Sawyer said children just want to fit in, which is why parents should refrain from packing ‘embarrassing’ food that has a bad smell or is sticky and messy, the expert added.
Guidelines
Sawyer said all schools should opt to implement a packed lunch policy that has clear messages about what foods the school encourages children to bring and which foods are not allowed.
“The policies need to be developed collaboratively with parents, students, teachers and nutrition experts.”
Healthy lunchbox meal
According to the nutrition expert, a healthy lunchbox should include a vegetable, fruit, protein (for example, meat), a dairy product, a wholegrain product and water. She said water should be the main drink that children should have.
