Guidebook for School Lunch Supplier: Promoting Healthy Eating and Food Safety

1. EatSmart@school.hkIntroduction of Guidebook for School Lunch Supplier

2. Guidebook for School Lunch Supplier

3. Aims • To further elaborate on the ‘Nutritional Guidelines on School Lunch for Primary School Students’ • To list out principles and information concerning healthy eating and food safety • To give examples on different food groups • To provide healthy lunch menus as well as useful practical tips

4. Content… • Principles of Healthy Eating • Importance of Healthy Lunch • Production Guide for Healthy Lunch Box • Food Safety Measures on School Lunch • Memorandum on Nutritional Standard of Healthy Lunch • Healthy Lunch Recipes

5. Principles of Healthy Eating • Importance of Healthy Lunch • Production Guide for Healthy Lunch Box • Food Safety Measures on School Lunch • Memorandum on Nutritional Standard of Healthy Lunch • Healthy Lunch Recipes

6. Principles of Healthy Eating • Choose a variety of food • Consume grains and cereals as the major component of each meal • Have enough fruit and vegetables • Eat moderate amount of lean meat (including red meat, poultry, fish, seafood), eggs, legumes and low-fat dairy products • Drink adequate amount of fluids • Have regular meals • Have a balanced diet, do more exercise and maintain a healthy weight

7. What is a balanced diet? Eat Most – Grains & Cereals Eat More – Fruit and Vegetables Eat Moderately – Meat, Seafood, Eggs, Legumes and Dairy Products Eat Less – Oil, Sugar and Salt Drink 6-8 glasses of fluid each day

8. Principles of Healthy Eating • Importance of Healthy Lunch • Production Guide for Healthy Lunch Box • Food Safety Measures on School Lunch • Memorandum on Nutritional Standard of Healthy Lunch • Healthy Lunch Recipes

9. Importance of Healthy Lunch A healthy lunch can help students: • Obtain adequate amount of nutrients, esp. protein, calcium and iron for growth and development • Establish a good eating habit • Improve the ability of children to concentrate and learn more effectively • Boost their immunity

10. Principles of Healthy Eating • Importance of Healthy Lunch • Production Guide for Healthy Lunch Box • Food Safety Measures on School Lunch • Memorandum on Nutritional Standard of Healthy Lunch • Healthy Lunch Recipes

11. Production Guide for Healthy Lunch Box - Quantity • Lunch should be able to meet one-third of the daily nutritional needs of a school child • Provide examples of different food groups, and • P.1-P.3 students • P.4-P.6 students quantity of one serving recommended quantity of lunch for students

12. Recommended Quantity of Lunch for Students

13. Production Guide for Healthy Lunch Box - Quantity Follow the recommended quantity in the table for lunch boxes with grains and cereals, vegetables and meat in the ratio of 3：2：1 Provides different examples of grains and cereals, vegetables, meat or its alternatives and fats

14. Conversion Table of Common Measurement Units

15. Production Guide for Healthy Lunch Box - Quality • Include the rationales, examples and applications of the following areas: • Good Practices • Encouraged Food Items • Limited Food Items • Strongly Discouraged Food Items

16. Production Guide for Healthy Lunch Box - Quality • Lunch suppliers should • Supply vegetables every day • Use limited amount of vegetable oil for cooking • Remove all visible animal fat and excessive oil used in cooking before serving

17. Encouraged Food Items • Lunch suppliers should include ALL the following food categories in AT LEAST ONE menu choice on ALL school days: • Whole grains or high fibre grains/cereals • Low-fat dairy products or other calcium-rich food items

18. Limited Food Items • Lunch suppliers should NOT serve ANY of the following items on more than 2 school days per week: • Grains and cereals with added fat or oil and sauce • Sauce or gravy with high salt or fat content • Fatty cut of meat and poultry with skins • Whole-fat dairy products • Processed or preserved meat, eggs and vegetable products

19. Strongly Discouraged Food Items • The following food items are strongly discouraged in ALL menu choices • Deep-fried food items • Food items with added animal fat, plant sources of saturated fat or hydrogenated fat • Hi-sugar food, desserts or beverages • Items with very high salt content

20. Other information… • Food Sources and Functions of Major Nutrients introduces various kinds of nutrients and their main functions • Tips for Designing Healthy Lunch Menu provides practical recommendations for lunch suppliers to produce quality lunch

21. Tips for Designing Healthy Lunch Menu

22. Principles of Healthy Eating • Importance of Healthy Lunch • Production Guide for Healthy Lunch Box • Food Safety Measures on School Lunch • Memorandum on Nutritional Standard of Healthy Lunch • Healthy Lunch Recipes

23. Food Safety Measures on School Lunch • Includes common food safety issues and measures in different cooking systems • Cook-serve System • Cook-chill System

24. Food Safety Measures on School Lunch Summary of Important Food Safety Points • Lists out clearly the critical safety points of different production systems to ensure safety and hygiene in each step, so as to prevent food safety issues

25. Principles of Healthy Eating • Importance of Healthy Lunch • Production Guide for Healthy Lunch Box • Food Safety Measures on School Lunch • Memorandum on Nutritional Standard of Healthy Lunch • Healthy Lunch Recipes

26. Memorandum on Nutritional Standard of Healthy Lunch • Provides practical tips based on the following areas： • Menu planning • Quantity • Choice of ingredients • Cooking • Additional fruit or beverages

27. Menu Planning • Avoid repeatingthe same ingredient on the same day • Use a wide variety of ingredients • Prevent serving limited food items on more than two school days per week • Do not supply ‘Strongly Discouraged Food Items’

28. Quantity • Grains & Cereals : Vegetables : Meat = 3:2:1 • At least one serving of vegetables should be provided every day • At least 2.5 servings of fruit should be provided in each week

29. Choice of Ingredients • Choose mainly fresh food as ingredient • Select low-fat dairy products and fresh lean meat or skinned poultry • Choose high-fibre grains and cereals • Avoid high-fat or high-salt ingredients

30. Cooking • Low salt, low fat, and low sugar should be the key features in cooking • Remove any visible fat from meat and skin from poultry before cooking • Use steaming, boiling, quick-boiling, baking or sauté with little oil instead of oily ways of cooking • Choose plant oil such as olive oil, canola oil or corn oil for cooking • Avoid using high-fat or high-salt sauce or separate the sauce and main dish

31. Principles of Healthy Eating • Importance of Healthy Lunch • Production Guide for Healthy Lunch Box • Food Safety Measures on School Lunch • Memorandum on Nutritional Standard of Healthy Lunch • Healthy Lunch Recipes

32. Healthy LunchRecipes Provides 30 healthy lunch recipes for lunch suppliers’ reference.

33. Healthy Lunch Recipes • In each recipe： • Recommended portion for P.1-P.3 and P.4-P.6 students • Preparation • Dietitian’s tips • Features of recipes： • Healthy & Tasty • Appealing • Use low-fat ingredients • Use low-fat cooking methods • Suggest using herbs or other seasonings to replace salt

34. Add corn kernels to white rice to increase the fibre content of the grains Including fruit in the recipe can not only increase the fibre content of the dish,but also make the dish more appealing Sauteed Beef with Sweet Peas and Peaches (with Rice)

35. Cooking red rice with white rice can increase the fibre consumption. White rice：red rice = 3:1 Yam strands also contain lots of fibre. Japanese Style Beef (with Rice)

36. Let Dietitian Tell You…

37. Let Dietitian Tell You… Is potato vegetable? No, it belongs to the ‘Grains and Cereals’ group. Other plant foods in the ‘Grains and Cereals’ group include corn, taro, sweet potato and carrot, but they are also counted as vegetables. Pumpkin is in the ‘Vegetables’ group only.

38. Let Dietitian Tell You… Green leafy vegetables are difficult to process and would easily become yellow after cooking. Children usually find it not appealing and refuse to eat. What can I do? The colour of green leafy vegetables can be retained in the cook-serve system, but the food temperature and delivery time should be well controlled. Lunch suppliers using cook-chill system may consider other vegetables, such as cabbage, zucchini, Chinese mushroom, straw mushroom, tomato or Chinese cabbage, as alternatives.

39. Let Dietitian Tell You… Even if healthy options are available, children still like choosing the unhealthy ones. How can lunch suppliers help them choose a healthy lunch? • List out clearly all the ingredients and cooking methods used in the menu every day to facilitate parents to educate children about choosing a healthy lunch box. • Use ‘Today’s Special’ to highlight the healthy lunch box of the day.

40. Let Dietitian Tell You… How many calories should be provided in children’s lunch？ Approximately 600-650kcal

41. Let Dietitian Tell You… Is the food quantity supplied in lunch of junior primary students the same as that of senior primary students？ As the daily nutritional needs of junior primary students are not the same as that of senior primary students, their demand for grains and cereals and meat are also different. Please refer to ‘Nutritional Guidelines on Lunch for Primary Students’ for more information about the recommended intake quantity. The recommended amount of vegetables and fruit is generally the same for all students.

42. Let Dietitian Tell You… Is margarine healthier than butter that it doesn’t matter at all if we use more for cooking? No. Like butter, margarine will also negatively affect our health if we overuse it for cooking. Margarine mainly contains ‘trans fat’ which will raise our blood cholesterol level. Moreover, margarine has the same calorie content as butter, excessive consumption of these fats may also lead to overweight or obese.

43. Support ‘EatSmart@school.hk’ Campaign What you can do for our children includes: • Supplying quality healthy lunch for students with reference to ‘Nutritional Guidelines on Lunch for Primary School Students’ of DH • Ensuring that all lunch boxes supplied for students meet the nutritional needs and food safety standard. • Cooperate with schools and parents to establish a healthy eating environment and improve children’s health

44. You are cordially invited… To work together with us and give a healthy eating environment to our next generation!

45. For updated guidelines and other health information, please visit the website of the Central Health Education Unit of the Department of Health at www.cheu.gov.hk

46. ～Thank You～