However what you can try to encourage a positive eating environment both at school and home.

National Guidelines have already removed the temptation for unhealthy snacking, but here's a helpful list of activities to engage and encourage children to eat healthily.

• Don't provide television or other visual distraction during lunchtimes.
• Start with a small serving, and let children get more if they are hungry.
• Be a role model. Children are more willing to eat a hot meal in a school hall setting if the teachers are seen to be doing the same.

You can also encourage an interest in food via the following

• Exploring the shapes, colours, and growth of foods in the classroom. For example, look into the many shapes that carrots can be found in food.
• Development of skills like pouring & stirring
• Learning simple hygiene, like washing hands before touching food or eating.
• Offering new foods alongside familiar ones can expand a child's palate.

We've all read sensationalist stories of children whose parents have refused school dinners in favour of "Fast Food Lunchboxes". It's never easy to convince a parent of the benefits of a prepared, hot meal, especially if the parent hasn't been schooled in the basic of a healthy diet themselves. However it is possible to also engage parents in creating a healthy eating environment.

• Provide parents with a recipe they can cook at home that matches a meal being served in school. apetito can assist you with this.
• Encourage eating as a family
• If the child is refusing food at home, encourage the parent to keep the child at the dinner table, or still within a family setting.
• If required, apetito can provide complete nutritional information about meals. apetito also provides material about the FoodSafe+ mark that apetito's frozen range offers.