Jamie Oliver joined forces with a panel of health and nutrition experts on Monday (7 March) to lambast the Government for neglecting school meals.

Calling on the Government to face up to its responsibilities on school food, 29-year-old Oliver said: "This is a moral question. We now have the first generation of people

	Jamie Oliver: "I want them to know that we're all watching"

who will die before their parents. And this is a man-made problem of feeding a generation of kids man-made, processed junk."

A host of food experts, including Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, London, and Clair Alison, a nutritional assessor in Scotland, joined in the debate in London to demand Government action. "The state has got to change," said Lang. "At the moment the department of education is passing the buck to parents. But we need the state to set down standards and implement them."

Oliver said that change was possible. "It will be very easy for the Government to fob us off with election shite. I want them to know that we're all watching. It's time they started acting as a nanny for our kids."

- So far, more than 12,000 people have signed Oliver's Feed Me Better petition. To sign up, go to www.feedmebetter.co.uk or, if you want to voice an opinion, write to Caterer at the usual address.


Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 10 March 2005