Menu planning and nutrition

Last reviewed: July 30 2024

Last updated: July 30 2024

Food supplied for children provides a healthy and balanced diet for healthy growth and development. Foods that contain any of 14 allergens identified by the FSA are identified on menus. The setting follows dietary guidance to promote health and reduce risk of disease caused by unhealthy eating. When planning menus, the setting manager and cook ensure that:

• Parents must share information about their children’s particular dietary needs with staff when they enrol their children and on an on-going basis with their key person.

• Staff refer to the Eat Better, Start Better (Action for Children 2017) Eat Better, Start Better - Foundation Years.

• Milton Mount Playgroup maintains a record of children’s dietary needs in a Food Allergy and Dietary Needs folder.

• The guidance in Safer Food Better Business (Food Standards Agency 2020) is followed at all times.

Packed lunches

Where children have packed lunches, staff promote healthy eating, ensuring that parents are given advice and information about what is appropriate content for a child’s lunch box. Parents are also advised to take measures to ensure children’s lunch box contents remain cool i.e. ice packs, as the setting does not have facilities for refrigerated storage.

• Parents must refer to our healthy eating poster.

• If parents send in items that are on the “no” list, they will be removed from the lunch box and returned at the end of the day. If this is the main meal, ie. A sandwich with unidentifiable spread that looks like chocolate spread or peanut butter, parents will be called to replace this item.