School meals help fussy children

The research found that four out of five children in England who ate school meals had tried food at school, that they had not tried before at home.

The survey was conducted by Englandís School Food Trust after a survey by the Mumsnet website suggested that some parents give their children packed lunches because their child is too fussy to have school meals.

The Trust Chairman, Rob Rees, has said that school meals can be great way to help parents encourage their children to try new foods and "increase the variety of foods in their diet."

Carrie Longton, co-founder of Mumsnet, has said that some peer pressure can be a good thing:

"It seems that once at school thereís a desire to fit in with everyone else and even some positive peer pressure to boast about the variety of what foods you can eat."

Half of the 1,000 parents questioned said that their children had asked for food that they had eaten at school, to be cooked at home.

However, currently only about 4 in 10 primary school children in England are eating school lunches, which is slightly more than secondary school children.

The survey was conducted online between 26th February and 5th March among parents who had at least one child aged 4-17 years old currently in school.