South Australia introduces new limits on iconic fairy bread at schools

An Australian school lunch classic has been hit with a new warning label and parents have taken to social media to express their outrage.

South Australia has moved to restrict fairy bread at public schools. Picture: Supplied

Parents in South Australia have been left outraged over the ban of a beloved school lunch classic.

The state’s Department of Education has issued a guideline warning fairy bread should not be provided at canteens or brought to school in children’s lunch boxes.

While the decision is just a guideline and not an all-out ban, parents are still urged to keep the snack out of lunch boxes.

The response to the announcement has been swift and sharp.

A poll conducted by the Adelaide Advertiser, asking readers to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question: “Should fairy bread be cut from SA schools?” has delivered a whopping 2522 votes since Tuesday morning.

The results show 89 per cent of readers opted for “no, let parents decide how to nourish their kids”, while just 11 per cent voted for “Yes, there’s enough on teachers’ plates without sugar highs”.

The poll’s overwhelming rejection of the policy matches with the outrage rolling across social media in response to the news.

Hundreds of people have left comments on articles about the new guidelines, with many expressing some mix of surprise and anger at the sudden defenestration of a legendary Australian school time snack.

Fairy bread has been a popular school snack for decades in Australia. Picture: Supplied

“Seriously, the seemingly constant regulation of children’s lunches at school is becoming absolutely ridiculous,” one said.

“I’m tired of our culture and traditions being taken from us we need to stand up and protest and be heard,” another said.

Some, however, expressed support for the move, and cautioned the policy does not control how parents pack lunch boxes.

“I don’t even know why some one would think to send their child with fairy bread any ways,” one said.

“It’s a party food not a school lunch food. Seriously if you want to send them to school with iconic Aussie lunch foods you should give them a Vegemite sandwich.”

South Australia has launched new ‘Right Bite’ guidelines where foods have been divided into four categories.

Green foods are listed as the best option, while Amber foods should be chosen “carefully”.

There are two Red categories – Red One where foods are only available twice a term at school events and Red Two, which includes foods that should never be sold or supplied.

Foods in the Red One category include butter, pies sausage rolls and pasties, schnitzels, sausages, biscuits, chips, jam and honey.

Meanwhile food in the Red Two category include deep-fried meats, deep-fried chips or hashbrowns, coated muesli bars, ice creams with confectionary, soft drunks and hundreds and thousands such as fairy bread.

The move comes after the WA Department of Health reconfigured its “traffic lights” system for classifying food and drink in schools, moving ham and other processed red meat from an earlier “amber” label to “red”, limiting its sale in canteens.

WA School Canteen Association chief Megan Sauzier told NCA NewsWire on Monday the move to red had caused workers at canteens, a majority of whom are volunteers and parents themselves, “concern” and confusion.

The beloved snack is now a no-go for South Australian schools.

“They are a little confused, I think would be fair to say,” she said.

“They need things that are easy to prepare and when that (a ham-and-cheese sandwich) is served alongside a broad range of other healthy green items, like fruits and vegetables and meals and pastas, then ham as an amber, we see as being acceptable.”

A list of ‘red’ items, which includes unhealthy offerings like soft drinks and chocolate bars, are completely off the canteen menu and have been banned since 2007.

Ms Sauzier said she was proud of her state’s policy on healthy eating at schools, but expressed concern the new ‘selected red’ category could see kids’ health going “backwards”.

Other items classified in the selected red group include pastries, pies and sausage rolls.

A fact sheet released by the department states the reclassification of some foods from amber to red was designed to align schools Australian Dietary Guidelines, the Australian Curriculum and a federal government health council guide to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food and drink.