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HET rationale and criteria for ‘Healthful’ Schools vending product selection

The HET Real Choice initiative has been designed to raise the standard of school food and drink vending provision. It will guide schools and vending operators towards achieving a healthful school vending service that reflects best practice. As such school vending can make a beneficial contribution to improving the dietary choices and eating habits of children in school. Real Choice focuses on what to vend and is the culmination of all the work carried out to date on school vending. It complements the vending guides produced by the FSA, the DH/DfES and the Welsh Assembly Government which were led and managed by the Health Education Trust. The research has shown that this style of vending is welcomed and enjoyed by youngsters across the UK- and so is commercially viable.

Healthful Vending for Schools

School vending operations can only be as ‘healthful’ as the products the machines vend. By following proven practice, school vending can complement and enhance a nutritionally sound catering provision and make profits for the school. In order to achieve this, a whole school approach to food and health issues is absolutely essential. Healthful vending is designed to assist schools in their whole school food, health and lifestyle education.

There is clearly a wide range of vendible product options available to schools, hence this ‘gold standard’ which provides a set of ‘principles’ for healthful vending.

Vending machines are a 24/7 reminder of the food and drink on offer at the school, and so can be a highly visible, positive nutrition education tool. Final product selections need to be dependant on each school’s situation at a particular time. We would recommend keeping this under regular and frequent review to keep the range fresh and attractive.

Healthful vending in schools is about thinking outside the box!

It isn’t about switching from high fat, sugar or salt confectionary or savoury snacks to any of the growing list of pre-packaged bars & packets of ‘ingredients’, even though they maybe designed to meet the nutritional recommendations for lower fat, sugar or salt! Such an approach to encourage pupils to switch from firm tasty favourites to so-called healthier alternatives that may not be quite so tasty would require a tremendous effort on the part of the school! But after all this effort, will pupils be any better able to select a balanced meal or snack that doesn’t come in a packet or wrapper?

Real Choice vending can contribute to teaching pupils what constitutes a balanced diet, as well as offering convenience – and the product will probably taste better too! A combination of real food vended options as well as nutritionally appropriate packaged snack items not only extends choice for pupils but also illustrates the fact that snacks do not have to be pre packaged and processed!

Moving away from processed food back to real food is the most important step change towards encouraging nutritious food for healthful eating habits. School vending needs to support this objective so that consistent messages are given to children. This guide is designed to become a starting point for schools to consider establishing their own policy on school vending in line with the new proposals from the Department for Education and Skills.

The Real Choice Scheme

HET established this scheme to help cut through the confused messages surrounding what is and what is not healthy or suitable for school vending. The current recommendations of the School Meals Review Panel are now being finalised following consultation (Leather S, 2005). These recommendations are set to transform school meal provision within the next three years and vending practice within the next twelve months. Since this is a consultation process, there may be adjustments and changes to the current recommendations and HET will incorporate these within the Real Choice scheme as soon as possible. Updates to this guide will be posted on our website: www.healthedtrust.com

Healthful Real Choice vending can be considered a gold standard for schools to aim towards, with the ideal being real food snacks or mini-meals to replace the highly processed snack products designed for a quick energy–fix. The need to rely on ambient (non-refrigerated) snacks for vending machines is a thing of the past now that new refrigerated vending machines are readily accessible for schools. A refrigerated vending machine opens up many more options for vending real and fresh food. Additional products that don’t necessarily require refrigeration can be included within a refrigerated machine, such as fruit and water and selected ambient snacks that fulfil the Real Choice criteria.

The Real Choice scheme takes into account the new Caroline Walker Trust (CWT)/ National Heart Forum nutrient-based standards for school food, (Crawley H, 2005) in developing the nutrient criteria for healthful school vending with the aim to ensure that food and drinks provided via vending will make a positive and proportionate contribution to the total nutritional requirements for the day. The premise is that school vending delivers drinks, snacks or mini meals and as such the relevant parts of the CWT guidelines are those that relate to snacks and after school meal provisions and not the school lunch per se. What this approach offers is consideration of not just the fat/sugar/salt content of any proposed product, but also the contribution it might make to energy, protein, fibre, calcium, iron and other micronutrients in a child’s diet.

Nutritional criteria provide one consideration of the selection criteria when determining the overall ‘healthfulness’ of the vending offering. A common-sense approach to product suitability can be more constructive than insisting on academic nutritional cut off points for fat, salt or sugar levels as other, non-nutritional factors may be just as important. So the criteria for product selection are better considered as how closely a product fits all factors. For example:

1.      Which would be better for a child to grab after a lunchtime football practice, with just 5 minutes before his next lesson? A ‘low fat’ cereal bar & diet drink may seem a convenient solution that’s easy to adopt these days. However an equally quick ‘mini-meal’ could be a tuna mayo & sweetcorn sandwich with fruit juice. In fact the latter may be higher in fat and sugar but the overall nutrition package of the sandwich option is better and cost may be lower too!

2.      Cheese and pickle sandwiches are a firm favourite that may be just the thing to encourage a reluctant snacker to switch from crisps to a real option mini-meal. Yet they may contain as much salt as the packet of crisps, i.e. more than recommended. So which would be better- to replace the standard crisp option for the sandwich, or for lower salt crisps? Clearly the real option sandwich has other advantages over the crisp snack: contribution to valuable fibre, B vitamins, calcium, and protein, less fat, plus more satisfying and sustaining than a packet of crisps (and we would hope that the bread is  wholegrain and the pickle is complemented with salad!).

By ensuring that the range of vended products is sufficiently wide to allow good rotation of choices day by day, week by week, it would be perfectly acceptable to include a popular, real food option that may, individually, fall just outside the nutritional criteria. The CWT nutrient-based standards for school food are designed for planning the supply of food over a week or more (Crawley H, 2005). It’s the contribution to the whole day/whole week food intake and food message (i.e. variety & balance) that matters when considering the overall health impact of foods. The Government’s Balance of Good Health model for nutrition education can be used as a good start point even for vending snacks.

Other criteria to consider are dental health concerns (sugar, acidity and stickiness of foods and drinks) and artificial additives, in particular colourings, sweeteners and caffeine.

Semi skimmed fresh milk    
Fresh flavoured milk (semi-skimmed)    
Pure fruit juices    
Fruit smoothies    
Drinking yogurt (low fat)    
Plain, still or sparkling water

Help support water in schools

Whole or pre-prepared fresh fruit
Fruit salads
Filled rolls*
Sandwiches*
Baguettes*
Wraps
Bread sticks and crudités
Crackers and cheese
Salads
Pasta mixes
Low fat yogurts
Low fat Fromage frais

*a selection of bread types and styles gives variety, aim for more wholegrain bread to be added to the menu.

Try mixes of white and wholemeal double deckers as a gradual introduction to ‘brown coloured’ bread
ome-baked tea breads and fruit buns- with lower sugar levels and extra fruit for sweetness
Home-baked cakes such as rock buns, gingerbread and fruit cake
Oatcakes with cheese
Oatcakes with berries
Maltloaf
Breakfast cereals (low sugar/low salt varieties) with semi-skimmed milk
Pizza slices (plain bases, include vegetables within toppings)

Real Choice school snack vending

Dried fruit
100% fruit bars
Vegetable crisps
Apple chips
Dried fruit & nuts mixes
Nuts with minimal salt
Popcorn with minimal salt & sugar

Real Fresh Food For Real Cool Flavour For Real Healthy Kids!

The Real Choice scheme will provide the reassurance necessary for schools to be able to establish healthy vending practices to the benefit of both students and the school. Registration on the Real Choice scheme is open to vending operators; product manufacturers & suppliers; and schools themselves.

Reference:

Crawley H (2005) Nutrient-based standards for school food. A summary of the standards and recommendations of the Caroline Walker Trust and the National Heart Forum. The Caroline Walker Trust, London.

Leather S et al (2005) Turning the tables: Transforming school food. A report on the development and implementation of nutritional standards for school lunches www.dfes.gov.uk.

What does registration mean?

HET aims to raise the standard of school vending by providing vending operators and catering contractors who wish to manage and operate their own vending provision with guidance on the suitability of products for school vending.

Products are evaluated by HET Nutritionist to assess suitability for inclusion in the Real Choice scheme.

Registration will be indicated by the inclusion of the Real Choice logo on vending machines that are supplied by eligible vending operators and catering contractors.

Listed companies will have agreed to only offer and provide Real Choice approved products within their vending machines that carry the Real Choice logo.

Vending operators and contract caterers wishing to find out more about the Real Choice scheme should contact HET for more details.

What does Real Choice mean for schools?

Schools can check out this list to find a registered vending operator or contact HET direct.

Real Choice Approved Operators

Company	Product
Acadia Associates Limited 9 Chanctonbury Drive Sunningdale Berkshire SL5 9PT Tel: 01344 870400 Email: info@acadiaassociates.co.uk Web: www.castus.dk	Currently working with suppliers to meet the school food standards: Castus Fruit Bars: High fibre, sun ripened fruit bars (86-97% fruit) in 8 different flavours.
Calypso Soft Drinks Limited Spectrum Business Park Wrexham Industrial Estate Wrexham LL13 9QA Tel:  01978 668400  Fax: 01978 668440  www.calypso.co.uk email: contactus@calypso.co.uk	Calypso Soft Drinks Limited The following products comply with the school food standards*: Calypso Aquajuice (185ml & 200ml) – Tropical, Apple, Blackcurrant, Forest fruits Calypso Aquajuice (185ml) – Orange, Red grape Calypso juice cuplets (85ml) – Orange, Apple, Pineapple, Safari grapefruit Calypso fruit juice (150ml & 200ml) – Orange, Apple,  Calypso fruit juice (200ml) – Pineapple, Orange, apple & mango, Fairtrade orange, Fairtrade apple Calypso smoothie (85ml & 200ml) – Orange, banana & mango, Strawberry & banana Calypso Natural mineral water (85ml, 185ml, 250ml, 330m & 500ml) Umbro still water (500ml) *Please note: other varieties and different pack sizes may not be registered to Real Choice.
Sun Valley Ltd Georgia Avenue Bromborough Wirral CH62 3RD Tel: 01514 827100 www.sun-valley.co.uk email: enquires@sun-valley.co.uk	Sun Valley Ltd You are what you eat – Seed mix (40g) fully complies with the school food standards. Currently working with suppliers to meet the school food standards for the following product ranges*: You are what you eat: Fruit & nut mix (40g), Nuts, fruit & seed mix (40g) Just…: Raisinz (30g), Fruitz ‘n’ Seedz (35g), Nutz (40g) *Please note: other varieties and different pack sizes may not be registered to Real Choice.
Cocio Chokolademælk A/S Web: www.cocio.com UK Distributor: GFT Retail Ltd. KT12 1EW Email: gftretail@aol.com	Cocio Chocolate Milk Drink Cocio chocolate milk drink (250ml) complies with the School Food Standards.

IMPORTANT NOTE HET wishes to record that the following companies are NOT registered to the Real Choice Scheme, are not eligible to use the HET or Real Choice logos and have no approved links with HET. HET holds no responsibility for the accuracy of information, or suitability (for schools) of products supplied by these companies: -        UK Vending Ltd, Kent