Bananas and peppers banished from school menus

The bananas are too expensive and the peppers are too poor in quality, explained catering chiefs. As an alternative, fresh fruit has been added to the menus by MetroFresh, a provider of food for school dinners. Coun Wilkes, who has two children himself at a primary school in Wigan, said this issue is more serious than what people think: "Bananas are a favourite with most children, not only is it a fun fruit but one that provides a vast amount of vitamins to maintain a healthy child. "Peppers are also packed with vitamins and are just the type of thing we should be encouraging our young people to eat. "I don't want to preach but this issue has a more serious side, as it flies in the face of the Government's and Wigan Metro's drive for school children to eat a healthy diet as a way of keeping well, boosting educational achievement and beating obesity. Although Steve Peddle, Metro-Fresh service director, disagreed: "The wholesale price of bananas had more than doubled recently, while peppers are currently of 'unacceptable quality' because we are in between the Dutch and Spanish peak growing seasons." But on the other hand: "Nobody should believe that somehow bananas or peppers are permanently off the menu. We can promise they will be back."