Dame Emma Thompson has sparked a backlash after hitting out at ‘unhealthy’ school dinners in a new campaign video.

The Love Actually star, 66, has narrated a new film criticising heads and the Government over ‘ultra-processed food’ (UPF) in schools.

Dame Emma’s intervention comes 20 years after chef Jamie Oliver launched his own campaign against ‘Turkey Twizzlers’ and other processed food in schools – leading to new Government standards for lunches.

The clip, produced for the Food Foundation charity and released today, calls on ministers to better ‘monitor’ school food to ensure it is nutritious.

However, yesterday it provoked a backlash on social media from those pointing out many children are fussy and refuse to eat a diverse range of foods.

One critic said: ‘Good luck with that! You cannot get them to eat it, they go packed lunch instead or don’t eat it, then go hungry.’

A second said: ‘You can’t make kids eat heathy, that old saying comes to mind… you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink it.’

A third said: ‘Another celebrity who hasn’t got a clue.’

The video features a cartoon illustration of a plate of healthy food, which includes red cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, aubergine, potatoes and cherry tomatoes.

A cartoon of a boy eating cereal out of a packet is shown during the ‘unhealthy food’ part of the video.

Dame Emma says in the video: ‘Four and a half million children in the UK are growing up in poverty. For many, a healthy diet is unaffordable. Fewer than 10 per cent of teenagers eat enough fruit and veg. And we see the impact of this lack of nutrients on those living in the most deprived areas. They’re growing up shorter than other kids.’

She adds: ‘Whilst some schools are managing to cook and serve healthy food, too many are now serving food that is unhealthy and lacking in essential nutrition. It is ultra-processed.’

A young person then says: ‘Ultra processed food, UPF. It’s cheap, it’s high in calories but it’s very low in goodness.’

Dame Emma hits out at the Government for not ‘monitoring what’s happening in the school food system’.

‘We just want to sit down to a school lunch that’s good for us,’ says another young person in the video.

Dame Emma adds: ‘Imagine that. Classrooms would be calmer, children with full tummies ready to learn… Every child has the right to healthy food – let’s get it right in all our schools. Let’s give all our kids a good lunch.’ 

The film is part of the Food Foundation’s campaign to update food standards in schools to make sure pupils living in poverty have access to a healthy, hot meal.

They say current food standards in schools do not take into account recent nutritional recommendations, and compliance with standards is not monitored.

The clip attracted diverse reaction from parents, school staff and the wider public on social media.

One critic said: ‘You can cook all the nutritious food you like, and schools do, including salad and fruit, but you cannot force a child to eat it. They have a choice to eat what they want. The amount of nutritious good thrown away in primary [schools] is criminal.’

Another said: ‘I’d like to know the take-up because I hear kids don’t take it up because they don’t like the food.’

A third said: ‘I work in a school and we provide salad pots, hot meals, vegetables, pudding and fruit. A lot of children don’t want to eat the salad pots or the vegetables… We can supply everything but we cannot force a child to eat anything.’

However, others agreed with Dame Emma, with one saying: ‘I would never put my kids on school dinners the food is beige central with very little variety, even more so if your kids don’t eat meat.

Another said: ‘Our school has some “interesting” food choices for a primary school that are more fitting for a working men’s club like a cheese and onion roll.’

Dame Emma, who attended the elite Camden School for Girls in London when it was a grammar, is known for her activism on food poverty and climate change.

In 2019, she was ridiculed during another nutrition campaign for claiming on TV that pupils are being denied tap water in schools.

She said poor children are spending their lunch allowance on bottled water, leaving them with hardly any money for food.

The Labour-supporting actress even said water fountains are being broken ‘on purpose’ in some schools to boost bottled water sales.

At the time, the then Tory Government said it ‘did not believe’ her claim because it is illegal for schools to withhold water and those doing do would face sanction. 

Today, Jamie Oliver said: ‘Good school food transforms children’s health, learning, attendance and wellbeing. Yet we still have a system where some children eat well at school and others don’t. That’s outrageous.

‘School meals are the UK’s biggest and most important restaurant chain, and it’s failing too many of its customers. It’s long past time for government to properly update 20-year-old standards and actually enforce them.’

The Government announced last year it would expand free school meal eligibility to all pupils in England whose families claim Universal Credit.

Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation, said: ‘Monitoring has to go hand in hand with new standards so that schools which aren’t meeting standards can be given adequate support to improve.

‘There are lots of wonderful examples of schools delivering fantastic food to children – that experience needs to be less of a postcode lottery and instead something which all children can benefit from.’

A Government spokeman said: ‘Through our Plan for Change, we’ve taken the historic step to offer free school meals to every child from a household in receipt of universal credit, reaching over half a million more children and helping us to drive the biggest reduction of child poverty in a single Parliament.

‘The Government is working with experts to revise the School Food Standards as part of our mission to create the healthiest ever generation of children.’