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School Food Environments

School Food Environment

Schools should provide a healthy environment for kids’ minds and bodies. Policies that keep schools free of promotion or sales of unhealthy foods and drinks and emphasize the nutritional standards that schoolchildren need to grow, develop, and succeed can lead to healthier food choices for kids at school and beyond.

Barbados

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National School Nutrition Policy | Implemented February 15, 2023

Barbados National School Nutrition Policy

The National School Nutrition Policy aims to create healthy school environments that enhance student learning and are conducive to the development of healthy lifelong eating and activity behaviors through a multisectoral and integrated approach. The policy applies to all public and private schools and educational institutions from preschool to tertiary level and covers six broad thematic areas:

  • Food services environment, including:
    • Nutrition standards for all foods and beverages available in schools
    • Restrictions on marketing and advertisement in schools of foods and beverages which are not consistent with the nutrition standards and healthy dietary practices
    • Improvements in eating environments in schools
  • School curriculum: Mandatory, comprehensive nutrition and physical education as part of a national, sequential school curriculum from preschool to secondary level
  • Physical activity environment: A holistic, comprehensive approach to creating a supportive and sustainable physical activity environment in schools which facilitates participation in PA throughout the school day
  • School health and nutrition services: Integration of supportive health and nutrition services to help in the prevention, timely identification and treatment of overweight and obesity and other health and nutrition-related problems
    • Annual health/nutrition assessments of all school children
    • Strengthened partnerships between schools and health teams
  • Health promotion for the school community: Educational and promotional activities to promote active participation of school personnel, parents, and community members and to ensure students receive consistent messages through multiple channels (e.g., home, school, community, and media) and from multiple sources (e.g., parents, peers, teachers, health workers)
  • School recognition: Program to encourage schools to promote healthy eating and physical activity and recognizes school efforts at improvement of the school environment in compliance with the policy

The School Nutrition Policy officially was approved in May, 2022, launched February 15, 2023, and is being introduced to all schools in a phased approach during the 2022–2023 academic year.

Read the full policy.

Brazil

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Law No. 11.947 | Implemented April 28, 2009 + Resolution No. 6 of May 8, 2020 | Implemented December 5, 2020

National School Meals Program / Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar (PNAE)

Law No. 11.947 (implemented 2009) set some principles for provision of school meals in Brazil, including that students have a right to school meals that provide them with food and nutritional security; that the food provided should be healthy, varied, and respect local culture as well as specific needs; and that nutrition education should be included in the school curriculum. Additionally, the law provided funding for the National School Meals Program (PNAE).

Resolution No. 6 of May 8, 2020 (implemented December 2020) modified the guidelines for allocation of PNAE funds, imposing the following series of restrictions:

  • Financial restriction for acquisition of processed and ultra-processed products (UPPs):
    • At least 75% must be used to buy fresh or minimally processed foods;
    • 20% at most can be used to buy processed and UPPs;
    • A maximum of 5% can be used to purchase processed culinary ingredients.
  • Maximum limits for certain UPPs to appear on school menus
    • For example, milk drinks with additives or sweeteners would be allowed twice a month at most; UPP meat twice a month at most; sweets once a month at most, etc.
  • A ban on adding sugar, honey, or sweeteners to culinary preparations and beverages aimed at children aged three years or younger
  • A ban on the use of funds to purchase the following UPPs: soft drinks and artificial refreshments, drinks or concentrates based on guarana or currant syrup, ready-to-drink teas, sweetened cereals or cereals with additives, candies, chocolate bars, stuffed biscuits, cakes with topping or filling, sweetened cereal bars with additives, gelatin, monosodium glutamate or sodium salts, mayonnaise and powdered or reconstituted food, among others.
  • Some guidelines on nutrition education, including social, financial, and environmental sustainability; respect of local traditions; autonomy and self-care.

Chile

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Ley 20.606 | Implemented June 27, 2016

Law of Food Labeling and Advertising

This law introduced mandatory front-of package labeling, marketing restrictions, and school sales/marketing policies, which all use same nutrient profiling model to identify which products are subject to regulation. Packaged food and beverage products containing added sugars, sodium, or saturated fat and exceeding set thresholds for content of total sugar, sodium, saturated fat, or overall calories are considered “high in” products subject to all regulations. The law was implemented in three phases (in June of 2016, 2018, and 2019) with increasingly strict nutrient thresholds.

  • Front-of-package warning labels: “High in” products must carry black octagon “stop sign” octagonal warning labels for each nutrient in excess of thresholds (calories, sugar, saturated fat, and/or sodium). Products with a “high in” warning label for a given nutrient/calories cannot carry a health/nutrient claim related to that nutrient (or calorie content).
  • Marketing restrictions: “High in” products may not use child-directed marketing strategies or appeals in any media/marketing (including use of brand characters on packaging);
    • May not advertise during children’s programming (TV, cinema, online) or when child audience share >20%;
    • May not advertise on TV from 6 a.m. – 10 p.m. (2018 update; read in Spanish | English); and
    • Must carry warning message if advertised outside of restricted hours/programming.
  • School sales & marketing: “High in” products cannot be marketed, sold, or offered for free at kiosks, cafeterias, and feeding programs at schools and nurseries.

Read law in: Spanish | English

Chile Cereal Boxes

Jamaica

Read more about our work in Jamaica

Interim guidelines for beverages pending completion of the National School Nutrition Policy / Standards | Implemented January 1, 2019

Interim guidelines for beverages

In 2018, Jamaica’s Ministry of Health created interim guidelines for beverages until the completion of the National School Nutrition Policy and the National School Nutrition Standards (slated for 2020). The guidelines prohibit sweetened beverages being sold or served in schools if they are in excess of set sugar content limits, starting January 2019 (maximum 6 g sugar/100 mL) and getting increasingly strict each year (ultimately maximum 2.5 g sugar/100 mL).

Mexican flag

Mexico

Read more about our work in Mexico

Reform to the General Education Law for healthy school food environments | Passed November 8, 2023

On November 8, 2023, the Mexican Senate unanimously approved a reform to Mexico's General Education Law that mandates healthy school food environments for all levels of education. This reform:

  • Bans in-school sale and marketing of pre-packaged foods and beverages with excess critical nutrients (products that are required to carry FOP warning labels and legends)
  • Bans making mention of foods with poor nutritional quality or that put children’s health at risk
  • Fosters commercialization and consumption of unprocessed and regionally-produced foods
  • Establishes administrative responsibility for implementation, surveillance, and sanctions for noncompliance 
  • Safeguards national school food guidelines with a rights-based approach and criteria on sustainability and conflict of interest
  • Establishes periodic evaluation and update every five years.

Following publication in the Official Gazette, the Secretariat of Education will have 180 days to adopt or improve necessary corresponding secondary regulations. State and local agencies will have two years to achieve compliance.

Resources

School food environment

Global map showing countries with national-level policies to improve nutrition in public schools by limiting service or sales of foods that do not build health. Key policy interventions mapped include restrictions on nutrients, ingredients, or categories of concern in school meals, competitive food sales, and marketing in schools.

Ultra-processed foods

Fact sheet describing ultra-processed foods and drinks and the threat they pose to public health worldwide as they make up increasingly greater portions of the global diet. Learn how to identify ultra-processed products; review the evidence for their association with a multitude of risk factors, diseases, and mortality; and explore policy options to reduce consumption. […]

Industry self-regulation

Fact sheet describing food and beverage industry voluntary self-regulation in three main areas of public health concern: 1) Child-directed food marketing; 2) front-of-package labelling; and 3) reducing unhealthy nutrients in the food supply. While self-regulation continues to be the most common approach globally for addressing industry’s role in the ongoing obesity crisis, this fact sheet […]

School food environments

Fact sheet describing the impact of unhealthy school food environments on childhood obesity and wellness. Learn about policies that can improve the school food environment, including restricting access to unhealthy foods, protecting kids from food industry marketing, and emphasizing the nutritional standards schoolchildren need to grow, develop, and succeed at school and beyond the school […]

Publications

The consumption of ultra-processed foods was associated with adiposity, but not with metabolic indicators in a prospective cohort study of Chilean preschool children
Authors: Camila Zancheta, Natalia Rebolledo, Lindsey Smith Taillie, Marcela Reyes, Camila Corvalán
Published in: BMC Medicine, August 26, 2024 view full text

Changes in children’s and adolescents’ dietary intake after the implementation of Chile’s law of food labeling, advertising and sales in schools: a longitudinal study
Authors: Gabriela Fretes, Camila Corvalán, Marcela Reyes, Lindsey Smith Taillie, Christina D. Economos, Norbert L.W. Wilson, Sean B. Cash
Published in: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, April 4, 2023 view full text

Youth's diets at school after implementation of Chile's Food Labeling and Advertising Law
Authors: Gabriela Fretes, Camila Corvalan, Marcela Reyes, Christina Economos, Lindey Smith Taillie, Norbert Wilson, Sean Cash
Published in: Obesity, December 1, 2021 view full text

Changes in the use of nonnutritive sweeteners in the Chilean food and beverage supply after the implementation of the Food Labeling and Advertising Law
Authors: Ricardo C. Zancheta, Camila Corvalán, Lindsey Smith Taillie, Vilma Quitral, Marcela Reyes
Published in: Frontiers in Nutrition | Nutrition and Food Science Technology, November 8, 2021 view full text

Understanding the need for a whole-of-society approach in school nutrition policy implementation: A qualitative analysis
Authors: Natasha P. Sobers, Lisa Bishop, Shu Wen Ng, Suzanne Soares-Wynter, Natalie S. Greaves & Madhuvanti M. Murphy 
Published in: Implementation Science Communications, July 17, 2021 view full text

Sugar-sweetened beverage reduction policies: Progress and promise
Authors: James Krieger, Sara Bleich, Stephanie Scarmo, and Shu Wen Ng
Published in: Annual Review of Public Health, April 1, 2021 view full text

The effects of the Chilean food policy package on aggregate employment and real wages
Authors: Guillermo Paraje, Arantxa Colchero, Juan Marcos Wlasiuk, Antonio Martner Sota, Barry M. Popkin
Published in: Food Policy, April 1, 2021 view full text

Changes in the amount of nutrient of packaged foods and beverages after the initial implementation of the Chilean Law of Food Labelling and Advertising: A nonexperimental prospective study
Authors: Marcela Reyes, Lindsey Smith Taillie, Barry M Popkin, Rebecca Kanter, Stefanie Vandevijvere, Camila Corvalán
Published in: PLOS Medicine, July 28, 2020 view full text

An evaluation of Chile’s Law of Food Labeling and Advertising on sugar-sweetened beverage purchases from 2015 to 2017: A before-and-after study
Authors: Lindsey S. Taillie, Marcela Reyes, Michelle A. Colchero, Barry M. Popkin, Camila Corvalán
Published in: PLOS Med, February 11, 2020 view full text

Responses to the Chilean Law of Food Labeling and Advertising: Exploring knowledge, perceptions and behaviors of mothers of young children
Authors: Teresa Correa, Camila Fierro, Marcela Reyes, Francesca R. D. Carpentier, Lindsey S. Taillie, Camila Corvalan
Published in: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2019 view full text

Structural responses to the obesity and non‐communicable diseases epidemic: Update on the Chilean law of food labelling and advertising
Authors: Camila Corvalán, Marcela Reyes, Maria L. Garmendia, Ricardo Uauy
Published in: Obesity Reviews, March 2019 view full text