JERSEY’S packed-lunch policy in primary schools means that children here are eating better than those in the UK, according to Health Promotion.

Yesterday the UK Government introduced a £280 million initiative to improve school dinners as celebrity chef Jamie Oliver presented a 271,000-strong petition to Downing Street asking for more funding to stop schools serving up ‘reconstituted rubbish’.

The chef’s television programme, Jamie’s School Dinners, revealed that some UK schools spend 37 pence per pupil on meals.

But in Jersey, primary school children are expected to bring their own lunch to school, and this results in students getting more fibre, fruit and vegetables in their diet.

Health Promotion Officer for young people Jenny O’Brien said: ‘The problem is perceived to be bigger in the UK than in Jersey.

Jamie’s programme showed what can happen when children don’t have enough fibre in their diet.

Children here have more proper meals than those in more deprived areas of the UK because parents really want to know about diet.

‘We have a programme aimed at primary schools called Grab 5.

It is a whole school approach.

A few years ago nutrition would come up on the curriculum and we would do something for one class but there was no long-term impact.

Now, the programme runs throughout the year.