Many children think these come from chicken. (File picture)

Nearly one in five primary school children believe fish fingers are made from chicken, new research has shown.

The British Nutrition Foundation – which surveyed more than 27,500 children – also found that nearly a third of primary school children think that cheese comes from plants.

And one in ten secondary school children believe that tomatoes grow underground.

The study was conducted as part of the BNF’s Healthy Eating Week, launched today by The Princess Royal, which will see more than 1.2million children learn about healthy eating, cooking and where food come from.


Roy Ballam, education programme manager at the BNF, said: ‘Schools throughout the UK require a national framework and guidance for food and nutrition education to support the learning needs of children and young people, especially at a time when levels of childhood obesity are soaring.



‘Through Healthy Eating Week we hope to start the process of re-engaging children with the origins of food, nutrition and cooking, so that they grow up with a fuller understanding of how food reaches them and what a healthy diet and lifestyle consists of.’

The gaps in knowledge could be explained by the fact that one in five primary and secondary school pupils admitted they had never been to a farm, Mr Ballam added.

‘This may go part way to explaining why over a third (34 per cent) of five- to eight-year-olds and 17 per cent of eight- to 11-year-olds believe that pasta comes from animals,’ he concluded.

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