Back to School! More healthy plant-rich food on the menu with new School Food Standards

England’s kids are back to school. And for the first time in a decade, the government has reformed the School Food Standards which shape the school meals that children get served across the country. The big news is that some of the reforms are massive step forward! That’s worth celebrating, because healthy delicious food is vital not just to help children thrive, but is usually better for the planet too. After a summer holiday full of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires, it’s more obvious than ever we need to act to build a future that’s safe for children to grow up in. 

So what’s in the new Standards? Here’s some of the major changes, particularly as they relate to helping shift to more healthy plant-rich foods: 

• All main meals must contain one or more portions of vegetables or salad. 

• A portion of pulses (which doesn’t include baked beans) must be served with all menu options at least once a week.  

• Under existing standards, a protein source must be served every day – and on three or more days per week meat must be served. Under the new standards, pulses like lentils and beans can now be served instead of meat. 

• Processed meat such as sausages, ham, bacon, burgers, meatballs, salami, pepperoni can only be served a maximum of once per week. 

• Cheese can only be served as a main ingredient up to twice per week.  

• There is a total ban on deep fried foods, restrictions on sugary drinks, and more high fibre bread and pasta required. 

Some of the measures faced backlash when proposed earlier this year, so it’s great to see that the government has resisted calls to weaken the standards. Foodrise have been working hard with our allies to build pressure for these standards to be as ambitious as possible, like though building pressure via the government’s official consultation – so we’re now celebrating these meaningful changes. Some of the measures could have gone further – for instance a more ambitious requirement on the number of portions of vegetables served per meal, and three portions of pulses served per week – but generally these reforms are a big step forward!  

Schools now have a major opportunity to introduce children to less familiar foods and make healthy plant-based proteins like lentils, chickpeas, tofu and soya mince normal and exciting. Schools should also be encouraged to go beyond the minimum requirements, and can emulate successful schemes like the London Food Purchasing Commitment which has seen many schools in London boroughs serving more plant-based foods in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Schemes like ProVeg’s School Plates initiative provide great recipe templates and support. These schemes show that more plant-rich meals can be a success with students. 

We know that the public strongly supports a shift to more plant-based foods in schools. YouGov polling for Madre Brava of over 2,000 members of the UK public from Dec 2025 found that 69% of respondents either strongly or somewhat supported a policy to “make schools serve a higher proportion of plant-based food”, with only 10% strongly or somewhat opposing this policy. This includes majority support from every demographic studied – including voters for every major political party in the 2024 election. Plant-based proteins like pulses are often cheaper than meat, so can help the food served to be high quality, improve the variety of fruit and veg and meet the other Standards. For instance, ProVeg found that a plant-based spaghetti bolognese (made with lentils and soya mince) cost approximately 43% less than a spaghetti bolognese made with beef mince – 41 pence per meal compared to 72 pence per meal. Councils participating in the London Food Purchasing Commitment found that cutting the carbon footprint of public meals in local schools reduced costs by up to 7% – largely by swapping out high carbon ingredients such as beef. 

The government has said that it will be developing the guidance to schools on how to implement these changes throughout Autumn 2026. To maximise the opportunities of schools serving more plant-based foods, we recommend this includes things like: 

• A recipe bank of affordable, nutritious and tasty plant-based recipes available for schools and caterers 

• To help schools serve more pulses, provide a range of recipe options for both featuring pulses as the main ingredient, and other options for incorporating pulses as a blended ingredient, a side dish, as a dip or sandwich filling 

• Fund support for the training of school kitchen professionals to cook more tasty, filling and nutritious plant-based meals. Denmark’s Greener Public Food Agreement provides a great template for this. 

• Provide clear information on the health and environmental benefits of plant-based foods to schools and caterers. 

The new rules also offer a huge opportunity to UK farmers; with an estimated 234 million portions of beans or pulses due to be served per year. A recent report co-authored by Sustain, Follow the Carrot, found that a growing number of UK farmers grow beans and pulses as cover or break crops for their nitrogen-fixing properties, but consumer markets are not well established, so the crop is often ploughed straight back into the soil. School meals could offer a market for more environmentally friendly protein crops. 

Finally, to ensure these standards are effective, we also now need a national mechanism to monitor and enforce compliance, with Ofsted oversight and transparent reporting. Encouragingly, the government has said it is working on this, after recent research revealed that most schools currently don’t meet existing standards. The devil will be in the detail. 

Other government departments should take note. Children will now be better protected from unhealthy foods like processed meat and will have more access to vegetables, pulses and legumes, but the same isn’t true elsewhere in the public sector. Defra must come good on it’s promise to overhaul the government buying standards and guarantee that the public’s money is spent on food that supports good health and reduces our environmental impact. 

At Foodrise, we’re committed to holding the government to account to make sure that all public sector food is as healthy and sustainable as possible. But today, we mark a victory.