KEY POINTS:
An Auckland primary school is banning birthday cake as it prepares for new national healthy eating guidelines.
Schools throughout the country are already purging high-fat and high-sugar items from tuckshops.
Now Oteha Valley School, at Albany on the North Shore, has told parents that birthday cake brought for students to share will also be off the menu.
It says the Government's healthy food guidelines, to come into effect in June, are the reason for the ban.
Birthdays can still be celebrated, but shared edible treats will not be allowed for students having the big day at the school from next term.
The national guidelines require only "healthy options" to be sold on school premises and boards of trustees to promote healthy food and nutrition for students.
Oteha Valley principal Megan Bowden said some classes had four cakes turning up in a week, a rate many families would consider to be unhealthy.
"In a lot of schools, you have gluts of birthdays," she said.
"There are lots and lots of children born in September and October, and you might in a class have four birthday cakes in a week."
Miss Bowden said the birthday cake phenomenon started about eight years ago.
It had escalated to to a point where parents were calling her to ask if it was a requirement.
This week's school newsletter told parents to stop sending cakes to school from next term.
But a Ministry of Education spokesman said schools did not have to monitor food and drinks students brought from home or bought off-site, as the guidelines specifically concerned food sales.
Schools were encouraged to work with their community to take a "common sense" and practical approach when deciding how to promote healthy options.
"Schools should develop practices that work for them and their communities," the spokesman said.
The ministry system classifies food as "everyday", "sometimes" and "occasional".
Occasional foods include most pies, confectionery, chocolate, deep-fried food, full-sugar fizzy drinks and high-fat pastry products.
Officials claim it is not a ban, but ministry information brochures say occasional foods are "not for provision".
