Mandatory standard for food in schools: National healthy school canteen policy

The policy addresses childhood nutrition and obesity by mandating that schools provide healthy food options in canteens. All schools are banned from selling unhealthy food products such as pizzas, sugary drinks and confectionery in school canteens.

The policy came about as a result of growing concerns about the nutritional health of schoolchildren and the rising rates of childhood obesity. As the Program Manager for Nutrition Improvement in a district of Tehran Province, Iran, I have worked closely with this initiative. Nutrition experts were tasked with visiting schools to evaluate the status of school canteens. Reports were then sent to both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health. In cases where violations were identified, legal actions were taken against the school canteen's responsible to ensure compliance with the healthy standards.

The Ministry of Education, together with health authorities, is responsible for monitoring compliance. The responsibility for school visits and inspections was assigned to nutrition experts and health inspectors from each district.

The implementation of the policy in day-to-day work has faced several challenges. While efforts were made to ensure healthier food options in school canteens, a 2021 assessment revealed that a significant portion of available foods did not comply with national guidelines and the WHO-EMR model. Key factors that hindered full implementation included: -Inadequate physical and economic infrastructure to establish standard school canteens. -Lack of clear scientific criteria for proper food categorization. -Poor monitoring mechanisms, limiting the policy's enforcement.(One of the main challenges in the inspection process was poor monitoring. As an inspector involved in this issue, I witnessed that the large number of schools and the limited number of inspectors led to longer intervals between each inspection. This, in turn, resulted in a reduced quality of monitoring, making it difficult to maintain consistent oversight a. As a consequence, this lack of frequent and thorough monitoring was a key factor contributing to the incomplete implementation of the policy in schools). -The high price of healthy foods, making them less affordable for schools. -Conflicts of interest among stakeholders, such as school canteen operators prioritizing profit over health guidelines. While the policy aimed to improve students' nutrition, its success has been limited by these barriers. This has resulted in incomplete adherence to the policy, and the desired goals of improving child health and reducing obesity have not been fully realized.

Babashahi M, Omidvar N, Joulaei H, Zargaraan A, Zayeri F, Veisi E, Doustmohammadian A, Kelishadi R. Scrutinize of healthy school canteen policy in Iran's primary schools: a mixed method study. BMC Public Health. 2021 Aug 18;21(1):1566. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-11587-x. PMID: 34407797; PMCID: PMC8375065.