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Children across the district are facing changes to their daily school dinner diet because of soaring food prices.

Double-digit inflation in the cost of foodstuffs such as bread, eggs and cheese has left local authorities nationwide struggling to maintain high quality subsidised dinners.

And caterers are altering their menus and using less cheese, beef, canned fish and bread as the prices of food increase.

Now the district's school meals boss says that the low cost of dinners in the district could be under threat at the end of the year. Roger Sheard, operations manager for the council's in-house school meals provider, Facilities Management Catering (FMC), said rising costs were presenting it with a "significant challenge".

He said: "Cheese is up from £3.04 per kilo in April 2007 to £4.40 this year.

"Pasta has gone from £2.09 a kilo to £3.80 and we are expecting a 20 per cent increase in canned fish in the next few months."

But Mr Sheard said FMC, known as Education Contract Services until early this year, hoped to hold off passing on the extra costs until the start of next year. "We are not intending to put a rise on the price of school meals to parents until January 2009," he said.

Mr Sheard said FMC would now be in the red were it not for additional Government funding and recent menu alterations.

From 2008 until 2011, each local authority in England will receive annual funding of £923,000.

Although FMC has altered its menus, it says meals in Bradford district remain ahead of statutory Government standards.

8:44am Sunday 4th May 2008

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