If you allow children to bring packed lunches it is important that these are healthy and children and families are supported to make healthy choices. This is to ensure that children eating packed lunches are receiving the same nutrition from their food as children eating cooked meals that meet the Startwell Menu Guidelines and the Department of Education Early Years Foundation Stage Nutrition Guidance.
To help settings monitor the quality of children’s packed lunches and promote healthy choices use the following tools and resources:
Packed Lunch Audit
Handouts for Parents
Click the images for the pdfs.
Guidance for Parents
It is important to have clear guidance and ideas for parents to follow. Use the Startwell Packed Lunch Food Ideas sheet to provide parents with ideas of suitable foods to send and those to avoid.
- The Packed Lunch Food Ideas handout splits the foods into red, amber and green groups to help families identify what should go in a packed lunch.
- You can adapt the foods and drinks in the categories to reflect your packed lunch guidance /policy.
- If you allow children to bring packed lunches to your setting this handout should be given to all new parents, it is also good to give out before trips which require the children to take a packed lunch.
- The ideas should also be used in workshops, promotional sessions and as a basis for displays to ensure a consistent message is given.
Packed lunches should include the following types of foods everyday:
- A minimum of 1 portion of fruit or vegetables for vitamins and minerals
- A starchy food for energy and concentration e.g., any bread, wrap, chapatti, pasta, rice, noodles, potatoes. Do not bring flavoured dried rice, pasta, and noodle products e.g., packets and pots of instant noodles, pasta, and rice.
- Meat, fish, eggs or another plant-based source of iron and protein e.g., lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas, hummus for cognitive development.
- Dairy or dairy alternative food e.g., cheese, plain unsweetened yoghurt or fromage frais, for growth of bones and teeth.
- Plain tap water should be provided by the nursery throughout the day and during lunch time.
If parents send foods which are high in fat and/or sugar or which you feel are unsuitable, they should be removed from the packed lunch. If possible and if needed a healthier alternative should be provided and the unsuitable food returned to the parents when they collect their child, with a conversation as to why they are not suitable for packed lunches in your setting.
It can be hard to gauge the correct amount of food to send in a packed lunch and parents may be worried that their child will not be full. Therefore advice on appropriate portion sizes can be helpful and the Startwell portion sizes guidance is available for extra information.
First Steps Nutrition Trust has a very comprehensive guidance document on packed lunches for the early years, “Eating Well: Packed Lunches for 1-4 year olds” which you may find useful to read and share with your parents. We think the following pages may be particularly helpful for providing some good practical tips for your parents:
- Pages 5-6 & 14 – What to include and avoid in packed lunches
- Page 7 – Tips on practical considerations when making a packed lunch
- Pages 16-47 – Pictorial example packed lunches including recipes and tips for each one
Processed Fruit Snacks
There are a lot of processed fruit snacks that are marketed at Early Years children such as fruit winders, stars, peelers, strings, flakes etc. These foods are classified as Ultra Processed Foods and aren’t suitable for Early Years children.
These food products are made from fruit juices and purees and the sugar in them is classed as free sugar, which attack the teeth. A diet high in free sugars is linked to poor oral health and overweight in children. They are not suitable foods to provide as a snack or part of a packed lunch. A healthier and less expensive alternative would be a whole piece of fruit (or cut-up pieces of whole fruit) which contain the vitamins, minerals and fibre that children need.
The picture to the right from ‘Action on sugar’ shows the amount of free sugars in some of the most common processed fruit snacks.
Startwell have created a handout that you can share with parents to highlight why processed fruit snacks are not suitable for our early years children.
Eating with Children
Even though the children may bring a packed lunch it is still important for staff to sit with them and engage in conversations about the foods they have and the Startwell characters. It is even better if the staff can eat some healthy foods or their own healthy packed lunch with the children too as this shows good role modelling and gives more conversation opportunities.
Allergies and Food Safety
Any food being brought into the setting should adhere to your food allergy guidance and parents will need to be made aware of this too. It is also important that the children do not share or swap their packed lunch foods to avoid any potential cross contamination of allergens.
Consideration should also be given to food safety, where are the packed lunches being stored? Can you store them in a cool place, out of sunlight and away from heaters? Parents should also be encouraged to use an ice pack to help keep the foods cool. Most settings avoid reheating food due to the extra precautions and requirements around food safety and temperature probing.
Packed Lunches for Trips
Even though trips are often a special occasion, if a packed lunch is required it should still adhere to the guidelines above. Parents who are not used to providing a packed lunch for their child may need extra support and the ideas sheet to ensure the food they send is appropriate.
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This is the sixth and final week of our 6 week Startwell summer holiday challenge. Enjoy running and rolling with Sammy Skills and have a go at making lunch with Fay 5 a day. We hope that you have enjoyed all of the activities over the last 6 weeks and have had a great summer. startwellbirmingham.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/6-Week-Summer-Challenge-Poster.pdf
Thanks to those who came along to our Startwell Characters and Messages Training on the 19th August. Take a look at some of the feedback from this training!![]()
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Our training is free and available to early years practitioners within Birmingham. To see what training we have available: startwellbirmingham.co.uk/training-dates/