Tomato ketchup is to be rationed for pupils as education bosses strive to make school meals even healthier.

Meals have been undergoing a radical transformation to make them better for children resulting in the withdrawal of fizzy drinks, crisps and chocolate from school canteens across Bradford.

Now, in line with these new recommendations introduced last month, primary schoolchildren are only being given the option of having tomato sauce with their meals once a week when it is deemed "an appropriate accompaniment" to their meal.

Even then the sauce will be carefully administered by the school's catering manager. A spokesman for Education Contract Services (ECS), which supplies school meals to the majority of primary and secondary schools in the district, said the sauce would appear only once a week, for example, with battered fish dishes and fish cakes.

He said: "Tomato sauce is available from a choice of sauces - in this case both cheese and parsley sauces are available to accompany the fish dishes. The serving of tomato sauce is administered by the catering manager at the service point and the sauce is carefully spooned in measured amounts onto the child's meal."

Secondary school students will still be able to buy tomato sauce in sachets along with other sauces at an additional cost to their meal. This rationing out of a household favourite to children aged 11 and under is all part of the government's drive to make meals healthier and to reduce the sugar and salt levels of all school meals.

Last month ECS announced changes to its school menus as part of the new mandatory food based standards outlined by Education Secretary Alan Johnson.

Although many of the recommendations had already been implemented low quality meat products, fizzy drinks, crisps, chocolate or other confectionery will not be found in any ECS school canteen. Meal, poultry or oily fish is available on a regular basis and deep-fried items are restricted to no more than two portions in a week.

Pupils are also served a minimum of two portions of fruit and vegetables with every meal. A spokesman said: "ECS has already implemented many changes across its school menus including the removal of all processed foods and many frozen meals and provides more home cooked dishes made with fresh ingredients, many sourced locally.

"Fizzy drinks and crisps have been removed from the menu and fresh water has always been available in school dining rooms. Salmon and other fish dishes were introduced to the menu last month."

He added that ECS was constantly reviewing its healthy menu development to ensure that the best quality and value was being achieved.

"The ECS menu already surpasses the new government standards and this forward thinking and planning from ECS has placed Bradford's school children ahead of the new government requirements which demand that a school meal makes up at least one third of a child's nutritional daily intake."

e-mail: sunita.bhatti@bradford.newsquest.co.uK