Healthier foods served at nurseries in nutritional training trial

More than 800 early years and health professionals in five local authorities - Hertfordshire, Gateshead, Gloucestershire, Southwark and Stoke-on-Trent - were chosen to pilot the Children’s food Trust’s Eat Better, Start Better programme in 2011.

Through the integrated food, nutrition and healthy cooking programme practitioners received training on how to use the national guidelines on healthy food and drink. They also ran practical cooking sessions with families to help them provide healthier food at home.

An evaluation of the two-year programme, funded by the Department for Education, found that overall food and drink served in the settings early years and health professionals worked with became healthier, more balanced and nutritious.

Settings also offered a wider range of food and changed to using more foods lower in sugar and salt. A larger number were also giving children more appropriate portion sizes.

The research, which included audits of food provision in 184 settings in the five pilot areas before and after training, revealed that the number of nurseries, children’s centres and childminders giving children a portion of fruit or vegetables with their breakfast more than doubled, from 26 per cent to 64 per cent after the training. Most settings (93 per cent) also began serving cereals that contained low or medium levels of sugar.

Settings started giving children snacks to help protect their teeth and fewer gave children dried fruit to eat between meals.

In light of the findings, the Children’s Food Trust makes a number of recommendations for future roll-out of Eat Better, Start Better nationally, including: