The government just announced the biggest shake-up of school food standards in over a decade. Ice cream is gone. Fruit juice is gone. Deep-frying is banned outright. And every single main meal now has to come with vegetables.

Dylan and Hayden get into what has actually changed, what the old rules really said versus what people think they said, and whether any of this will make a blind bit of difference if schools do not have the kitchens, the funding or the enforcement to back it up.

The free school meals debate gets a proper run out too, after the Green Party called for universal free meals for every primary and secondary pupil in England. London already does it for primaries. Does the rest of the country follow? Or is targeted support for low-income families the better use of the money?

Plus their own memories of school dinners, the very real postcode lottery in quality across English schools, and whether there is any point writing better rules if more than half of schools were not even meeting the old ones.

The consultation is open until 12 June 2026 if you want to have your say.

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