Munich wants to remove fish from the daycare menu: the city reveals plans for 2023
Created: 04/01/2023 20:27
By: Tanja Kipke
Delicious, tasty, fish fingers: kindergarten children feast on the lunch table.
© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa
The menu in Munich's day care centers should change.
Fish dishes are then hardly provided.
The city explains the reasons for the decision to our editors.
Munich – Media reports have been circulating for a few days that the city of Munich wants to remove fish from the menu in city day care centers and after-school care centers.
The
Bild
newspaper reported about it first.
At the request of our editors, the city's education department explains what is behind the decision.
However, fish dishes will not disappear completely from the menu.
City of Munich wants to reduce fish dishes in day care centers – “Overfishing and microplastics”
From September 2023, kindergarten children will probably eat less fish than before.
In day-care centers, lunchtime meals usually consist of cook-and-freeze meals (around 80 percent of the food in after-school care centers and around 60 percent in day-care centers).
The city has put out new delivery orders for this frozen food.
According to the spokesman for the education department, the process is already in the final phase.
This also includes avoiding fish dishes if possible.
How so?
The recommendation came from the German Society for Nutrition.
"Due to overfishing and the contamination of fish with heavy metals and microplastics, the extent to which sea fish should continue to be offered had to be considered," explains the spokesman.
However, freshwater fish is not an alternative either, "it is rather questionable for feeding small children in communal catering because it often contains bones."
Children are allowed to participate in the design of the menu in day-care centers
As a result, fish has not been completely eliminated from the menu in day-care centers.
The menu is the responsibility of the daycare management.
"If required, the day-care centers can continue to offer a self-made fish dish as part of the fresh food offer, there is only no more fish in the pre-produced frozen offer." But the children are also allowed to help design the menu and express their wishes.
The city has not received any negative reactions from parents to the decision.
"In general, we usually get reactions from parents when something is cooked in individual cases that the children don't like."
(tkip)
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