This summer, Bite Back published Fuel Us, Don’t Fool Us: An investigation into Big Food in schools.
In this Local Health and Global Profits guest blog, Policy & Engagement Executive Chris Booth explores how food and drink companies are selling and market to children and young people through schools.
At Bite Back, we work with young activists to change the way unhealthy food is made, marketed and sold. We hear it all the time – young people are surrounded by junk food marketing from the moment they wake up. Notifications from brands ping before they even get out of bed. Their high streets are flooded with fast food outlets. Ads featuring unhealthy products follow them on buses and billboards on their way to school. And sometimes, this influence doesn’t stop at the school gates.
Take my younger brother. We live in a fairly quiet and rural area, relatively free from Big Food’s grasp. So why is it, when he arrives at his sixth-form college, he’s met with unhealthy food options and sneaky marketing tactics inside the very place he goes to learn?
What are commercial determinants of health?
Big Food corporations spends enormous amounts of money shaping the world around us to drive sales of unhealthy products – and young people are especially at risk. These are known as the commercial determinants of health (CDoH): activities driven by corporate entities that affect people’s health. In the case of marketing through schools, industry may disguise its true nature by dressing it up as corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Big Food in schools
While the true scale of Big Food’s influence in education settings is unclear, Bite Back’s latest investigation offers a snapshot into how giant food and drink companies are infiltrating schools. Let’s break down how their tactics might show up throughout the school day:
In the classroom: Some students receive workbooks and lesson plans branded by companies like Innocent Smoothies (owned by Coca-Cola). Others might take part in health & fitness programmes, funded by major confectionary brands like Ferrero and Mondelez.
Around school grounds: In certain schools, brand logos are visible on school equipment and facilities, including on lunch menus and on-site outlets. At one college, a Starbucks outlet was spotted selling a frappuccino containing 48g of sugar – more than an adult's daily recommended limit.
At lunch time: Despite the mandatory school food standards (SFS), many students have reported crisps, chocolate and sugary drinks on offer, from brands like Walkers, Pringles, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Fanta, and more.
On school trips: Big Food is promoting school trips to fast food outlets and factories like Cadbury World.
After school: Products are being donated or offered to schools at a discounted rate for fundraisers and after school activities, including Krispy Kreme doughnuts and pizza from well-known high street chains.
What are the consequences?
Healthy food should be the default option for children in school – to allow children to thrive in the classroom and beyond. That’s why the school food standards exist. However, without proper monitoring or enforcement, Big Food is able to slip through the cracks. Products are showing up in schools, which are not only non-compliant with the standards, but are also classified as high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS).
Some of the industry's tactics, like free classroom materials or interactive school trips, may appear beneficial for schools at face value. But in reality, they’re often designed to reinforce a dangerous narrative: that health is simply a matter of personal choice, rather than the result of a broken food system that is rigged against young people.
By pushing this narrative, Big Food deflects from its role in driving ill-health, whilst projecting the image of a responsible partner to schools. And with budgets tight and resources stretched, these opportunities are hard for schools to turn down – making it even more difficult for policymakers to regulate.
What are the solutions?
It doesn't have to be this way. Schools have an exceptional opportunity to provide children with the best possible start to life – by shielding them from CDoH and serving food that is both delicious and nutritious.
In June, the Government announced that it will update the standards, which is brilliant news! But schools still need more support and the standards need to go further. The Government should:
Introduce an accountability framework, enabling and supporting schools to meet the standards
Extend the standards across all educational settings, including further education
Close the exemptions around school trips, rewards and fundraisers
If the Government is serious about its commitment to create the healthiest generation of children ever, where better to start than schools?
Read more
Fuel Us, Don’t Fool Us: An investigation into Big Food (Bite Back 2025)
Standards for School Food in England (Department for Education)
