Why Norwegian children eat bad food at school
One of the truly contradictory aspects in the country of Norway is the food which is given to children in daycare centers and elementary schools during the extended day programs. Having worked in both a kindergarten and an elementary school, I have formed an opinion about Norwegian food culture, and I would like to share it with you. I cannot understand what kind of nation gives its children leftovers from the meat industry, meaning highly processed, sweet, and salty artificially preserved pastes in tubes. Is Norway a poor country, with little money that cannot afford food for the children? No. There are much poorer countries that prioritize good food for children. Norway does not do this.
What do I mean by processed food in a tube? Inside the refrigerator of the elementary school, there is a lot of bread and many… tubes. Pink tubes, blue tubes that contain melted processed cheese with bacon or cheese with shrimp or mackerel melted with tomato paste! Unfortunately, this is representative of most daycares and schools in Norway. Who came up with the idea of mixing shrimp, salt, sugar, and liquid cheese, putting it in a tube, and giving it to small children? Is that food? I wonder. So, they give for breakfast or lunch a slice of bread with various “pålegg” (Pålegg is anything that is placed or spread on a slice of bread or knekkebrød/crispbread).
When they say they serve a hot meal once or twice a week, what do they mean? It means pancakes with butter or brown cheese or tomato soup that is not homemade at all. It is a soup made from processed powder produced by Toro. It is salt, sugar, and some kind of white flour with tomato flavor. They mix it with hot water and serve it to the children. Sometimes they may put pasta spirals in the tomato soup. So, children from a very young age eat a lot of bread, sausages (the cheapest and most processed version), a lot of pålegg in tubes, caviar (fish eggs mixed in sweet mayonnaise), leverpostei (liver pâté), shrimp cheese in liquid paste, mackerel and tomato in liquid form, liquid cheese with small pieces of bacon, etc. As for fruits and vegetables, they usually have available apple, orange, banana, cucumber, and maybe tomato.
In theory, daycare centers follow the dietary guidelines of Norwegian health authorities, but most are not mandatory, just advisory. For example, these guidelines recommend not giving sugar to children in daycare centers for birthdays (children aged 1 to 6 years). But it depends on each daycare center to decide if they will have ice cream, cake, and even candies for each child’s birthday. The Toro chocolate cake is the favorite cake for all birthday parties in Norway, as well as in the barnehage (daycare) when parties are held. It has sugar as the first ingredient and many other wonderful things for small children, like glucose syrup.
The mystery to me is that in Norway, even the health stations (responsible for monitoring young children from birth) advise starting solid foods with grøt (porridge) produced by industrial brands, with added artificial flavors as well as palm oil, and all kinds of other cheap oils. Of course, they add vitamins (in artificial form), but can’t they get them from vegetables? A study from Høgskolen i Volda in Norway shows that although daycare centers provide vegetables and fruits, as well as a variety of pålegg, most children eat bread with the same “pålegg” every day, at every meal.
I won’t even talk about the high sugar intake with all the ‘lørdagsgodteri’ (Saturday sweets), ice cream, and chocolate cake from Toro in a bag given to children even before they turn 1 year old in Norway. Rewarding children for good behavior by allowing them sweets only on Saturdays because they are well-behaved all week is beyond me. Firstly, because there’s no limit on consumption, and secondly, they’ve already started the weekend with taco Friday at home, where parents don’t even make their own minced meat sauce but buy ready-made, which is loaded with sweeteners and salt, or they get frozen Grandiosa pizza. Note that many Norwegian parents would like the food to be improved, but systems are hard to change. They didn’t grow up with better food themselves.
What are the reasons behind this tradition? Firstly, the truth is that leverpostei, caviar, and brunost, all these ‘pålegg,’ are traditions in Norway. They are so deeply rooted in Norwegian dietary culture that any criticism is unwelcome, as eating brunost is as Norwegian custom as skiing. Also, most schools don’t have personnel who cook and have knowledge about cooking, so it’s easier for assistants at kindergartens and schools to spread margarine on 25 slices of bread per meal than to actually make real hot food from scratch for everyone. They also often lack the funding and facilities (like a suitable kitchen) to do so. However, cooking unprocessed food can be inexpensive. Seasonal vegetables like cabbage, pumpkin, etc., are among the cheapest vegetables available in a Norwegian grocery store. Fresh fish is often sold at a discount. Beans are also cheap, even organic ones.
Staff could spread bread with hummus, avocado, honey. The bread doesn’t need to be low-quality and fluffy from the supermarket. Soup doesn’t need to be from powder in a bag. A soup can have 3-4 ingredients (carrot, onion, coconut milk, and onions) for 25 children in less than an hour. And we are already seeing the results of this diet with increased obesity among Norwegian children and teenagers.
Most Norwegians have learned very little about nutrition in school anyway. There are other priorities at the municipal level. So where does the money go to ensure the health of Norwegian children? I hope that municipalities and the state will do their duty to provide the best Norwegian food for all children. In the meantime, throw away the tubes and put some farmers in kindergartens to teach children about the food chain and the life cycle that a seed goes through until it becomes a fruit. They can also bring some baskets with fruits and vegetables. Children need real food, not sweet liquid shrimp paste.