Thanks to investments made in recent years, nearly half of the world’s primary school pupils now have access to school meals. But what are they eating? Our latest report, Learn to eat well, written with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, calls for school environments to be cleared of junk food, which do not provide them with the nourishment they need to learn.
Schools must be a place where healthy habits are cultivated, not undermined. Eating locally produced, fresh school meals, delivered by informed school nutritionists is part of a child’s education. It is an active lesson that will drive their relationship with food and empower them to make informed food choices in the future that are good for their health and the planet.
School meals support education outcomes: they have been found to increase enrolment rates by 9%, and attendance by 8% among pupils, while also improving their learning outcomes. But they are unlikely to reap such results if they are not nutritious.
In 2022, 27% of school meals worldwide were not designed in consultation with nutritionists. Only 93 out of 187 countries had legislation, standards or guidelines on school food and drink. And of these 93 countries, only 65% had standards governing the sale of food and drink in school cafeterias, food shops and vending machines.
Another survey focused on school meals provision found that 72% of countries reported some limitations on food marketing on school grounds, and 52% had national-level prohibitions on foods permitted on or near school grounds in 2022.
Some countries are taking further steps to ban junk food from schools.
In Chile, the government created a nutrition profile model which forced some food items to display a black warning label. Several of these products are banned in schools. There was a strong focus on marketing control, with initial restrictions eliminating cartoons and enticement for children from package design, which had a major impact.
By next year, all vending machines in middle and secondary schools in France will be removed.
Mexico’s Federal Senate recently passed a law that will prohibit junk food from being included in school meals and to make it illegal to sell junk food in the vicinity of school facilities. The Ley Anti Charra (Anti-Junk Food Law), applies to stores, schools and vending machines.
“Goodbye to junk food in schools!” said the Mexican education ministry on X as it announced the change.
#TuSecretarioInforma🗞️ | ¡Adiós a la comida chatarra en las escuelas! 🍎👋 El maestro @mario_delgado informó que ya están en operación los Lineamientos Generales para alimentos saludables. 🕊️🏫 #ViveSaludableViveFeliz
🔗 Conoce más: https://t.co/Kw8Bqt3xDC pic.twitter.com/9XuUH7Ao0s
— SEP México (@SEP_mx) April 1, 2025
Public opinion surveys routinely note that adults would prefer a ban on unhealthy food marketing to children to reduce exposure to unhealthy food. In 2019, Portugal became the first European Union country to introduce a law to regulate the digital marketing of unhealthy foods to children. Nearly 8 in 10 adults in the United Kingdom say that such types of ads aimed at children should be banned, something that has recently picked up media attention, just as it is also causing a stir in New Zealand and South Africa.
Prioritizing fresh and banning ultra-processed food
For other countries not yet on this track, the lack of standards and of school meal quality monitoring should be a major concern. The rate of obesity among school-age children has more than doubled in most countries since 1990.
Our report lists some other countries acting on the nutritional content of school meals as inspiration for others to follow. In Brazil, the national school feeding programme has recently introduced restrictions on ultra-processed products. In China, reforms introducing vegetables, milk and eggs in rural schools have increased children’s nutrient intake and helped boost school attendance.
in the Indian state of Maharashtra, the introduction of fortified organic pearl millet, rich in iron, into school meals has improved the attention span and memory of adolescents. In Nigeria, the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme launched in 2014, which aims to provide a free, balanced meal every day in all public primary schools, has increased the primary school enrolment rate by 20%.
Our latest report encourages governments and education stakeholders to provide school meals based on fresh, local produce, to reduce the presence of sugary and ultra-processed foods, and to monitor how they are doing. Countries can support this qualitative leap by including food education in school curricula.
Download Education and nutrition: learn to eat well
