This week: Packed lunches

The daily grind to get pupils to eat something - anything - that contains nutrients has not been the same since St Jamie showcased his pukka approach to proper grub in his improbable blockbuster TV show about school dinners. Since then there have been a number of bits of good news about the sustenance dished up daily by dinner ladies throughout the land. Take-up, for example, of school grub jumped once again last year. And the food is healthier too. Catering managers and heads should reward themselves with a bowl of spotted dick.

Annoyingly, however, the battle for children’s digestion isn’t over. This week the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) made headlines by publicising data that suggests the real issue is actually with packed lunches. Research into the contents of almost 3,500 lunches showed that just 58 per cent contained anything that might constitute “one of the five-a-day”. This compares extremely unfavourably with 90 per cent of school-dinner servings. On to the naughty step you go, parents of Britain, and you’re not allowed off it until you agree to top-up lessons with Mr Oliver (right).

Oh, and perhaps our good friends at the WCRF should also face a short spell on the step, for making such a song and dance about data that was first produced in 2009. Naughty.