Children will be taught to read between lines on labels

Published on Tuesday 13 May 2008 22:10

SCHOOLCHILDREN will be taught to read food labels and understand advertising pressures from food manufacturers, under new guidance published yesterday.

The new health guidelines say children should learn to interpret nutritional information on packaging so they can encourage their parents to choose healthy food options.

The aim is to create a new generation of Scots wise to apparently healthy products such as breakfast cereals and fruit drinks, which are actually loaded with sugar, fat and salt.

The schools minister Maureen Watt stressed the importance of equipping children with the tools to make informed choices to tackle obesity.

She said: "We are determined to help children develop a taste for healthy eating at the earliest possible age."

She said the new curriculum guidance was part of the government's national food policy to develop lifelong healthy eating habits among Scots.

The school guidelines will be used from August and fully implemented by 2009 as part of the Curriculum for Excellence.

Teachers backed the move to help tackle food advertising.

A spokesman for the EIS union said: "Parents, teachers and others have long been concerned about the impact of the advertising of certain types of foods with high sugar, saturated fat or salt content to children."

However, some parents fear extreme messages could be picked up by youngsters.

Judith Gillespie, policy development officer for the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, said: "The worry is that people tending towards anorexia get worse.

"We should be concentrating on tackling our sedentary way of life. It really worries me that some young people will consider some foods as only a little less dangerous than cannabis."

Professor Brian Ratcliffe, professor of nutrition at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, backed fostering understanding over teaching dogmatic messages by rote.

He said: "A very small percentage of Scots actually read the nutritional information available and those who do, don't fully understand it. In future if children pick up two pizzas from a supermarket shelf, they can see which has less salt, fat and sugar, and make an informed choice.

"If (people] choose products which have low levels of salt, fat and sugar there will no longer be a market for items which are high in salt, fat and sugar."