Much like a monkey aboard a 1960s Space Rocket it appears food prices don’t want to come back down to earth either.  A brand of chocolate that is now banned at Auckland Zoo seems to be partly responsible. Apparently the increase in Grocery Sub Group One was driven by a price increase for chocolate that was ‘influenced by a decrease in the size of some chocolate blocks’.

Alarmingly one of my favourite characters from the Munch Bunch Tom Tomato has also skyrocketed in price. Lettuce is up too but this vegetable was too unhip to have a dedicated Munch Bunch character so doesn’t have a snazzy cartoon persona.

But it’s not all slightly bad news – it’s actually even worse news when one realises that apparently recessions love fast food global mega burger corp.  Of course none of the above food price rises for veges coupled with a potential boom in fast food will help our obesity problem.

Also not helping is the government decision to allow any old rubbish back into our schools by getting rid of the healthy food guidelines.  In keeping with modern times how soon will it be before the nation’s youth are dosing up on some cocaine and downing a few demons before hitting their enviro-schools study – oh hang on the funding to that’s gone. 

Anyway you can save the kids from the threat of demons and cocaine by signing Sue K’s petition to keep schools a healthy place for kids and food – while there’s still time!

While the experiments used in the item were not scientific the research that prompted the kiwi journalists to highlight this issue caused shockwaves when it was released in the United Kingdom in 2007.

The research – which was undertaken by the University of Southampton – found a link between hyperactivity in children and artificial food colourings.According to one of my favourite news sources European regulators are now working on a continent wide ban of the food colourings.

However in New Zealand we seem to be taking a cruisier, more relaxed attitude to kids’ health and safety.

Our own Food Safety authority considers New Zealand kids are unlikely to be putting their health at risk from consuming synthetic food colourings. The research cited backing up this statement is nearly a decade old and the page hasn’t been updated (at time of writing this blog) for 10 months.

Sue K highlighted this issue last year and it is worth noting that many teachers consider dietary intake does indeed have a great impact on behaviour in the classroom. Of course earlier this year our school canteens which had been on a road to good health are now back in the business of outdoing Willy Wonka with the ability to sell any and all manner of food.

Time to sign the school food petition [PDF] and remind the Government that kids’ health and learning is being jeopardised with the decisions of those in Government and the inaction of public service watchdogs.