Guidance

Example menus for early years settings in England

Example menus and useful guidance for early years settings to help meet the Early Years Foundation Stage requirements for food and drink.

• From: Office for Health Improvement and Disparities
• Published: 13 November 2017
• Last updated: 15 August 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

Documents

Example menus for early years settings in England part 1: guidance

PDF, 2.02 MB, 53 pages

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Example menus for early years settings in England part 2: recipes

PDF, 12.5 MB

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Details

Some of the food safety guidance is out of date in the ‘Example menus for early years settings in England’ documents. For example, we do not recommend giving popcorn to children under 5. These documents are currently being updated. For the most up to date advice on food safety, please go to the Department for Education page Help for early years providers: Food safety.

This series of example menus and associated guidance has been developed to support early years settings (such as nurseries and childminders) to offer food and drink in line with current government dietary recommendations for infants and children aged 6 months to 4 years.

The documents include example menus and useful information for early years settings to help show how they can meet the Early Years Foundation Stage welfare requirement to provide ‘healthy, balanced and nutritious’ meals for children.

Accompanying infographics are available from Action for Children.

Published 13 November 2017
Last updated 15 August 2024 + show all updates

1. 15 August 2024

   Information added to highlight that the documents are out of date and they are currently being updated.

2. 13 November 2017

   First published.