A leading catering consultant has hit back at Sunday newspapers that have labelled primary school meals a "national disgrace".
The furore was drummed up by a Soil Association report, which claimed the daily amount spent on school meals was as little as 31p.
This prompted organic food campaigner and BBC presenter John Humphrys to write a stinging attack in the Sunday Times, labelling the situation "a national scandal".
Humphrys said the school meal's single virtue was its cheapness. "What it will not be is nutritious," he added.
Vic Laws, director of AVL Consultancy, rejected Humphrys's comments. He said: "Poor eating habits are not a school meals problem. They are an education and social problem. We are not serving chicken nuggets in primary schools. Staff ought to be praised, not pilloried."
Laws said school caterers were producing nutritious and balanced home-made meals from an average of 38p-worth of ingredients per pupil. The rest of the cost to parents was taken up by labour (70p), overheads (15p) and transport (20p).
The perception that private companies were making large profits from school meals (widely publicised by Jamie Oliver, among others) was wrong, Laws said. At the most they made a profit of 4% of turnover, he added.
According to research carried out by AVL Consultancy, Compass, Initial, and Sodexho hold 12%, 7%, and 3% of the primary school market respectively. Most contracts (69%) are held in-house.
Last week the Soil Association's policy director, Peter Melchett, described the food often served to primary school children as "muck off a truck".
A spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "The secretary of state is aware of the [Soil Association's] report and is currently looking at school meals."
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 16 - 22 October 2003