Fuelled4Life

Healthier food choices in schools will now be even easier with the launch of nutrient guidelines for non-packaged foods. 

The Heart Foundation’s fuelled4life has teamed up with our first school lunch provider ezlunch in a new food scheme to help raise awareness of which foods New Zealand children should be consuming on a regular basis.

This is an important step towards creating healthier learners as many schools use online lunch programmes or local food suppliers to provide meals for students and as a consequence, have a large impact on child health and nutrition. 

It’s often challenging for busy canteens and caterers to get the right balance of taste and nutrition while still being affordable. The new guidelines will support school canteens and other local food suppliers in making foods they prepare healthier.

New Zealand children spend a quarter of their waking lives in school and consume an average of 32 percent of their daily energy intake in school.

Working on a simple rating system, fuelled4life classifies the foods children commonly consume as ‘everyday’ or ‘sometimes’ food according to their nutrient profile.  For example bottled plain water is classified as everyday and fruit juice is recommended as a sometimes beverage. Participating food companies have to submit their products to Heart Foundation analysis and, if approved, foods are then classified in one of the two categories. 

Any school lunch suppliers interested in joining the scheme should contact Larissa Beeby.