Thousands of early years providers using the nutritional guidelines

The Voluntary Food and Drink Guidelines for Early Years Settings were introduced by the Children's Food Trust to provide a nationally recognised source of information to childcare providers about what food and drink they should serve to children to help instil healthy eating habits and tackle childhood obesity.

The guidance, launched in January 2012, includes recipes and sample menus for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for five days of the week (pictured right).

The Children’s Food Trust has also published findings from a study it carried out a few months after the launch of the guidelines, which analysed the food intake of nearly 1,500 children attending early years settings in Oldham, Coventry and Suffolk.

While the Department for Education-funded research found that most settings are meeting many of the food and drink guidelines, it shows that on average the levels of iron and zinc in food were substantially lower than the recommended standards.

In contrast, the sodium content of food was higher than the maximum set by the standards, with the average teatime meal served by early years settings containing nearly double the recommended amount.

On average, full daycare settings were also found to provide less than the recommended level of energy at 979 calories. It is thought the reason for this is because portion sizes were generally too small.