ABOVE: Ham considered ‘not healthy’ for children by WA Department of Health.
Confusing parents, Western Australia has recently introduced a restriction on ham in school canteens.
After a reconfiguration of its system for classifying food and drink in public schools, WA Department of Health now uses a traffic light approach, assigning green, amber or red colours to these items.
Each colour is associated with restrictions on how food and drinks can be sold:
- Green items must account for at least 60 percent of items on a menu
- Amber items must account for less than 40 percent of items on a menu
- Red items cannot be on the menu.
Ham and other processed red meats have been moved from an ‘amber’ label to a ‘red’.
However, the new guidelines allow ham to be sold as if it was an amber item for two days per week if ham was already on the canteen’s menu prior to the reconfiguration.
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.
According to the department, while ham is not inherently considered junk food – being a source of protein and many other nutrients – certain types of ham products, especially highly processed or cured hams, are less healthy options due to several factors.
Many commercially available highly processed and cured hams can be high in sodium, which is salt.
On average, Australian children consume more sodium than the recommended upper limit of 600mg a day for children aged four to eight and 800mg a day for those aged nine to 13.
Some processed hams may contain additives, preservatives and flavour-enhancers that should be limited.
And, while ham is a good source of protein, certain cuts can be higher in saturated fat.
Any ham sold in canteens under the new rules (where ham is treated as an ‘amber’ food until the canteen menu changes) must have less than 3g of saturated fat per 100g.
