Prue Leith: ban packed lunches and teach children to cook

Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith has called for packed lunches to be banned, arguing that parents give in to pressure from their children to give them unhealthy food to take to school.

Her comments prompted an immediate debate over whether it would be sensible to ban lunchboxes, with critics suggesting that she was ignoring the realities of food poverty.

In an interview with the Radio Times, Leith, who was speaking before the return of the baking show, also called for better education in schools and for children to be taught to cook and also to understand where food comes from. She said: “Very few parents give out healthy lunchboxes due to pressure from their children.”

Her suggestions prompted an immediate debate, with Guardian restaurant critic Grace Dent arguing that a ban would be unhelpful because it failed to take food poverty into account. “We’re currently in a position nationally where many kids are arriving at school starving,” she said. “Teachers are grateful if some of them have been sent with any food at all, even if it’s a tube of Pringles.”

John Vincent, chief executive at the food chain Leon, said: “We would fundamentally agree with Prue’s view but ... advocate a less draconian approach.”

The British Dietetic Association said that some children would prefer food prepared at home for a range of reasons. But it said the evidence suggested many packed lunches were not as healthy as they could be.

Leith’s comments are not the first from a celebrity chef to trigger a debate over whether it is appropriate to criticise the food choices of some of the poorest in society. In 2013, Jamie Oliver claimed that struggling families could eat much better if they stopped spending their money on chips and television sets.

In an interview with the Radio Times, he referenced a “mum and kids eating chips and cheese out of Styrofoam containers, and behind them is a massive TV. It just didn’t weigh up.”

His comments were criticised at the time by chef Jack Monroe, who said his comments supported “damaging myths that poor people are only poor because they spend their money on the wrong things, rather than being constrained by time, equipment, knowledge or practicalities”.

Campaigners and charities were more welcoming to Leith’s comments about a need for better education in school. Leith said: “The most important thing is to teach children to cook at schools. And not only to cook but to understand about where their food comes from.”

She added: “I had this argument with Michael Gove when he was education secretary. I said, ‘if you made it part of the curriculum and part of the schools’ responsibility to address the lack of children’s knowledge on food and eating … you can justify that.’”

A spokesperson for the British Dietician Association said: “Although food and nutrition are a part of the national curriculum, there’s always more we can do, and schools need more support to provide this education in an already packed school week.”

Kath Dalmeny, chief executive of Sustain, which runs the Children’s Food Campaign, said: “In an ideal world, all schools would be providing good food every day and parents would be spared the hassle of making school lunchboxes. When we treat children’s food quality as a low priority, then junk-filled lunchboxes come into the firing line. But we should focus on the opportunity for high-quality school lunches to introduce children to a culture of healthy and convivial eating – habits that will last a lifetime.

“In other countries, such as France and Brazil, schools are required to use fresh, healthy, sustainably grown and higher welfare ingredients, supporting children and local farmers and making best use of cheaper seasonal produce. This would be a win-win-win for children, farmers and the environment.”

In the Radio Times interview, Leith also said the fuss about the show’s move from the BBC to Channel 4 now seemed totally unnecessary.

The baking competition hit the headlines in 2016 after Love Productions, which makes the show, sold it to Channel 4. Leith joined the series after the move, replacing Mary Berry, who opted to remain with the BBC.

She said: “It does seem, with hindsight, that all that fuss about the show moving from the BBC was so – I wouldn’t say manufactured – but it was so totally unnecessary to worry. If anybody had given it five minutes’ thought, they would have thought, ‘well why would a production company, who have got a fantastic success, mess with the formula? Why would they change it?’ ... So they didn’t change it.”