KEY POINTS:
Sushi has overtaken the sausage sizzle on the fundraising Friday lunch menu of an Auckland school aiming for a healthier food "environment".
And the sushi eaters of Hauraki Primary School in Takapuna are lapping it up - mostly.
Alyssa Statham, 7, prefers sushi to sausages. She is in no doubt that it is healthier. Why? "Because sausage has much fat in it," she says.
Leah Selkirk, 7, another sushi fan, declared she would happily eat it daily if she could, but another part of her admits sausages might be tastier.
The school, which doesn't have a tuckshop, has a parent-run sausage sizzle at lunch-time on Fridays about three times each term.
Other Fridays are sushi days, supplied by parent Helen Zou, who has gone on to supply other schools.
Hauraki principal Clarinda Franklin explains the sushi: "We've been angling towards a more healthy-eating school environment and trying to encourage that."
The sushi scheme started about 18 months ago and is among various attempts nationally to get children into a lifetime habit of healthy eating and physical activity.
This week, the Government announced that from next June, the food offered daily at state and integrated schools must only be healthy options. Education Ministry advice indicates sausage sizzles will be acceptable only about once a term.
A company that runs canteens in six Auckland schools, Libelle Group, said it had withdrawn soft drinks, pies and other pastry products, and provided free fruit with its combo meals
"We have given away no less than 15 tonnes of free fruit over the last year and a half," said marketing manager Johannes Tietze.
A leading school supplier, Futurefoods, provides lower-fat/salt pie options and has developed a mince-pie alternative, replacing pastry with a bread casing and a cheese and potato topping - all branded as Hot Bites.
Company spokesman Martyn Barlow objected to the Green Party annual tuckshop survey's lumping of Hot Bites in with pies, hot dogs and sausage rolls last month.
He said the bread-based "Murphies" Hot Bites in particular - a winner at the Massey University Food Awards and endorsed with the Heart Foundation Tick - were much healthier than a standard pie.
Green MP Sue Kedgley reiterated that while the tick meant a product was healthier than comparable items, it was not necessarily healthy overall.
"Good on them for trying to make healthier options."
