Do Hong Kong School Chefs need a Jamie Olliver?
Hong Kong – Thousands of Hong Kong children returned to school on Monday to find themselves confronted by healthier lunches in a major drive to cut rising rates of obesity in the wealthy city. Lunch contractors serving meals to 400 000 children in 500 primary schools have been urged by the government to serve up healthier food after studies found nearly one in five children in Hong Kong are now obese. Obesity levels have risen from 16,4 percent of children in 1997 to 18,7 percent last year, according to department of health figures, and a study earlier this year found only one in 10 snacks eaten at primary schools could be classified as healthy. The findings reflect a growing obesity epidemic in the former British colony whose population of 6,8 million do little exercise, live in high-rise flats and eat an increasingly Westernised diet. The growing popularity of fast food as people switch from traditional rice-based diets to hamburgers, fried chicken and French fries has been named as
