The Children's Food AwardsParents want to make sure their children get a decent lunchtime meal at school - but school meals aren't always supplied - and hassled mums and dads don't always have the time to make homemade sandwiches. Sensing a gap in this lucrative market (there are over ten million school children in the UK) Kraft foods launched Dairylea Lunchables in 1998 - and saturation advertising has ensured that parents across the land now give them to their children. But what's actually in them? And are they any good? The mums and dads on The Parents Jury certainly had a lot to say about Dairylea Lunchables, and unfortunately none of it was good! Here are some of their comments: |
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Absolutely
vile over-processed rubbish!
mother
of one, from Reading in Berkshire
They
contain cheese, disks of reconstituted ham and stodgy crackers. Salty, fatty
and no fruit or veg.
mother
of two, from Cradley in Worcestershire
They
are sold at a prohibitive price for what they contain - just tiny slices of
ham and cheese and a few crackers!
mother of two, from Southampton
The
Dairylea Lunchable collection are high in salt and are horrible, with a big
advertising campaign on the TV which makes them look good to children. My children
are always asking for them.
mother of four, from St Lawrence in Jersey
Dairylea
Lunchables contain processed cheese, processed meat and crackers or mini-hot
dogs. The TV advert depicts a child disappointed with his lunchbox until one
day, "Nice one, Mum!" she gives him a Lunchables lunchbox.
mother of two, from Harrogate in North Yorkshire
The
packet is labelled 'a good source of calcium' to make them look healthy. However,
they are very processed and hardly sustaining and the advert says something
about them being the ideal lunchtime treat!
mother of three, from Bournemouth in Dorset
This pack of Dairylea Lunchables (Harvest Ham flavour) boasts that it provides 36% of the recommended daily allowance of calcium. What it doesn't tell you is that half the calories are from fat with a third of all the calories from saturated fat. Nor does it mention that it is high in salt. This is processed food at its worst - a high fat, high salt snack which markets itself as a nutritious lunchbox treat for school kids.
Formed
Ham:
Pork - 60%, Water (30%), Starch, Acidity Regulator: Sodium Lactate (E325), Salt,
Stabilisers: Carrageenan (E407) and Polyphosphate (E452), Sugar, Flavour Enhancer:
Monosodium Glutamate (E621), Flavouring, Antioxidant: Sodium L-ascorbate (E301)
and Preservative: Sodium Nitrite (E250).
Cheese
Food Slice
Cheese, Butter, Emulsifying Salts: Sodium Citrates (E331) and Polyphosphate
(E452), Milk Protein, Whey Powder, Lactic Acid, Preservative: Sorbic Acid (E200).
Wheat
Crackers
Wheat Flour, Vegetable Oil, Sugar, Butter, Salt, Glucose Syrup, Whey Powder,
Raising Agents: Ammonium Carbonate (E503) and Sodium Carbonate (E500), Flavourings,
Preservative: Sodium Metabisulphite (E223) and Antioxidant: Tocopherols (E306).
The Children's Food Awards 2002
The Children's Food Awards 2003
| Not in my Lunchbox! | The Tooth Rot Award | Additive Nightmare! | The Pester Power Award |
| More in my Lunchbox! | Happy Gnashers! | The Honest Food Award | The High Five Award |