School caterer cuts three tonnes of sugar from meals

Education caterer Cityserve has cut three tonnes of sugar from school meals as part of a campaign to cut the amount stocked by its schools.

The company, which provides more than 60,000 school meals every single day at schools across the West Midlands, has removed 3,125kg of sugar from the school meals it serves - the equivalent of 750,000 teaspoons - as part of a plan to reduce the amount of sugar stocked by its schools.

The huge reduction has been achieved through a range of steps, including developing new lower-sugar recipes, limiting the use of condiments like tomato ketchup and salad cream and using fruit and vegetables as a replacement for some products.

Cityserve Head of Service Brian Cape said: “We’re overjoyed to have managed to remove such a large amount of sugar from the meals we serve to children. We’ve managed to do this without compromising on flavour or quality, but by carefully tweaking the way we do things to cut out any unnecessary sugar.

“We’ve always been ambitious with our sugar reduction targets and are pleased with our progress. This is an ongoing challenge and we’re going to continue to do whatever we can to make sure we’re feeding children across the West Midlands with the healthiest, tastiest meals possible.”

Cityserve already provides children with low-sugar meals in line with the 2013 School Food Plan, which set out actions to transform what children eat in schools and how they learn about food.

But following a review of school stock reports in 2018, the organisation launched its sugar reduction campaign to reduce the amount stocked by its schools.