France Bans Ketchup In Schools

Mayonnaise is still on the menu, but hold the ketchup. This week, French elementary schools have introduced new dietary guidelines, including limiting the amount of ketchup available in cafeterias.

The Los Angeles Times explains students will be allowed to consume french fries once a week, and only then can they have their weekly dose of ketchup. They also won't be able to use ketchup on traditional French dishes.

"Canteens have a public health mission, but also an educative mission," National Association of Directors of Collective Restaurants chairman Christophe Hebert said in an interview with the Daily Mail. "We have to ensure children become familiar with French recipes so that they can hand them down to the following generation."

The Telegraph agrees that the semi-ban was designed to preserve French food culture.

The new dietary rules also specify that schools must offer four or five dishes each day, while French baguettes will be offered in unlimited quantities, reports Fox News.

France is McDonald's biggest European market along with Germany and the U.K. But perhaps that explains the motive for such a bizarre set of school cafeteria rules. Let's see if the French food police can enforce it.

Comments

[lcarliner]

08:08 PM on 10/21/2011

This brings back memory of when the Ronald Reagan Administration tried to get classified as sufficient vegetable for school lunch programs a dollop of ketchup!

[Missy Ruth]

06:11 PM on 10/21/2011

Shoot - I thought they were banning ketchup because of the high sugar content. But this is pretty cool too!

[stevePccbc]

02:31 PM on 10/21/2011

I can't imagine how long it took them to come to this decision. After numerous committees interviewed “experts” they came to the conclusion that ketchup is high in sodium and therefore should be banned from schools. Get real people should concentrate on things that matter.

[Marcel Serraillier]

02:09 PM on 10/21/2011

Zut, alors!

[brunnegd]

10:29 AM on 10/21/2011

Great! Ketchup tastes like #### anyway, so get it off the market.

[eliteandproud]

03:38 PM on 10/21/2011

Commercial ketchup and mayonnaise are crap compared to home-made. But it will remain on the market as long as people are willing to pay for the convenience.

[bigfrog]

02:51 PM on 10/10/2011

Tomato ketchup is one of lifes great pleasures, along with baked beans. I don't mean the strange american mushy baked beans. I mean Heinz baked beans from the UK. It's also difficult to get baked beans in France and there can be no arguing about their nutritious qualities.

[kareemachan]

12:03 PM on 10/10/2011

My nephew went through a phase where he ate EVERYTHING with catsup. He would have gone into shock if his school had done this.

;-)

[tombollocks]

09:11 AM on 10/10/2011

I absolutely love ketchup, but I also like to dip my fries in dijon mustard, as well as wasabi, honey, mayo, and hummus. Depends on my craving.

[Lisa Solod Warren]

03:37 PM on 10/21/2011

I prefer and always use hot mustard, which is the way Parisians serve their frites anyway.

[StoryTime]

11:54 PM on 10/08/2011

Merciiiiiiiiiiiiii !
I'm French and well I don't fancy ketchup that much, it's way too sweet, besides French fries (which are originally from Belgium by the way) are a perfect match to mustard, Dijon or good quality mustard.

[Mustangallee]

05:08 PM on 10/08/2011

If you have spent much time in France this doesn't surprise you. Also, I agree with it...they really care about their food, they just don't slop it on a dish! I am sure it is prepared fresh daily!

[RTIII]

02:36 PM on 10/08/2011

Great; the French BAN catsup, while an American President (Reagan) declares it a vegitable so they can cheapen up on kids meals at school. -frown-

Once again, the French have it right where we don't.

[Frod43]

04:26 AM on 10/08/2011

they still cook the food fresh daily in french schools...where as schools in the U S just warm the frozen cafeteria food...big contract kitchens do the cooking and the food is terrible...schools had great fresh cafeteria food up to the 70's ...same as the army... the food that the G I's ate during the vietnam war was nutritious and fresh...even out in the field..where as today it is contracted and very expensive...and if you get "seconds"..they charge the army another 15.00 to 17.00 dollars more...so sad how we have sold out...

[Kevin Wheeler]

01:40 AM on 10/08/2011

I would imagine that the fries in France are good enough to eat without ketchup. Even in schools, the food is of good quality.

[IsabelRingin]

03:18 PM on 10/07/2011

What is it with kids and ketchup anyway? I loved it as a kid and now I can hardly stand the sight of it, let alone eat it. I don't even eat it on fries.

[AngelaQuattrano]

11:16 AM on 10/08/2011

I still eat ketchup in exactly the same ways as when I was a kid - on french fries and hash.

[Conuly]

12:22 PM on 10/07/2011

What really gets me is all the comments about "personal freedom".

Maybe you guys don't know how cafeterias work, but generally your freedom is restricted to what's on the menu, and that's not nearly as many options as you'd have if you just went out to eat. They have the same number of choices as American children do - whatever's on the menu! It's just that the specific choices may be different, but that's to be expected.

When the schools in America give you the choice of fish sticks or chicken nuggets, nobody goes "Oh, oh, personal choice!" do they? No, of course not. You eat what they give you or you bring your lunch. In France they actually have *more* options and *more* freedom because they're allowed to just go home for lunch. Not many schools in the US offer that anymore, do they?