Under Construction
Menu Uploading in Progress...
We are busy working behind the scenes to upload the new Spring 2025 Menu for Hot Meals!
You will be able to view our menus again from Monday 7th April at 12 noon - please check back then!
In the meantime, please read the letter below from our Dietician, Harriette, on the work we have been doing on our menu items!
The Carambola Team
Harriette Lynch Consultant Dietitian,
healthpro, Deer Park Golf,
Howth, Co. Dublin
Date: 27th March 2025
Re: Carambola Hot School Lunch Program
Dear Parents,
Thank you for taking the time to reach out to Carambola with your recent queries. I understand your concerns and am hoping to reassure you that the meals provided by Carambola meet the highest of nutritional and safety standards.
By way of introduction, my name is Harriette Lynch, a registered dietician for over 17 years. I have recently been contacted by Carambola to ensure that they are providing the very best practice to their service users, and, over the last 6 weeks, I have conducted a comprehensive nutritional analysis of their school menu offering. Following that evaluation, I can confirm that Carambola are providing a nutritious and health promoting product to our nation's children.
Furthermore, it's important to highlight that the school lunch program is highly regulated by food safety agencies such as the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which helps to provide further assurance of their suitability and safety for children.
Over the last year, the hot school meals scheme has been subject to criticism by some media outlets, with many statements unfortunately, not backed by scientific evidence and reliable data. Indeed, the ultra-processed foods (UPFs) conversation or arguments presented often carry black and white thinking, where the reality is much more nuanced and multi-factorial. Food additives for example, are an important part of food processing, and contribute to food safety, palatability and nutritional fortification, to name a few. Unfortunately, the conversation in the media around this, and other components of the school meals, has been subject to much misinformation/disinformation. I have personally seen in my clinic, how this unnecessarily causes increases in health anxiety. The only circumstance I would make a clinical recommendation for avoidance of a particular food additive in the diet, would be the existence of an allergy, or intolerance, to that additive.
To help answer your queries in more detail, it is my intention over the coming weeks to develop for Carambola a frequently asked questions section based on best-practice, evidence-based information.
Thank you again for reaching out. Yours in health,
Harriette Lynch
Consultant Dietitian | Exercise Specialist
healthpro
BA Ec | Soc, BSc Nut | Diet, C.O.R.U. Tel: 086 4119222
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