WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The World Health Organization has released a new global guideline on evidence-based policies and interventions to create healthy school food environments.
For the first time, WHO is advising countries to adopt a whole-school approach that ensures food and beverages provided in schools and available throughout the broader school food environments are healthy and nutritious.
Healthy food in schools can help children develop healthy dietary habits for life, according to the WHO.
The UN health agency issues the new global guideline at a time childhood overweight and obesity are rising globally, while undernutrition remains a persistent challenge. Schools are on the front line of this double burden of malnutrition. WHO says that in 2025, about 1 in 10 school-aged children and adolescents - 188 million - were living with obesity worldwide, surpassing for the first time the number of children who are underweight.
'The food children eat at school, and the environments that shape what they eat, can have a profound impact on their learning, and lifelong consequences for their health and well-being,' said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. 'Getting nutrition right at school is critical for preventing disease later in life and creating healthier adults.'
Today, an estimated 466 million children receive school meals globally, yet limited information is available about the nutritional quality of the food they are served.
In the guideline, WHO recommends that schools improve food provision at schools to promote greater consumption of foods and beverages that support a healthy diet..
As per the WHO Global database on the Implementation of Food and Nutrition Action, as of October 2025, 104 Member States had policies on healthy school food, with almost three quarters including mandatory criteria to guide the composition of school food. However, only 48 countries had policies that restrict the marketing of foods high in sugar, salt or unhealthy fats.
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