Follows rows over scotch eggs, Peperamis and cereal bars being taken

Teachers are free to take - and keep - any item from pupils' lunchboxes if they think they are unhealthy or inappropriate, the government has said.

Parents were outraged last month when it emerged children had scotch eggs and a Peperami confiscated under health eating policies.

Now ministers have backed the move, giving staff freedom to 'confiscate, keep or destroy' anything deemed to break school policies and setting out the procedure for carrying out lunchbox inspections.

Ministers have backed giving teachers being able to 'confiscate, keep or destroy' anything in lunchboxes deemed to break school policies on health eating

HOW TEACHERS SHOULD CARRY OUT LUNCHBOX INSPECTIONS How the Department for Education says teachers should policy packed lunches: Consult parents on healthy eating food policy

Inspect lunchboxes for unhealthy items

Confiscate, keep or destroy food which is banned under the policy

Have the pupil and a second member of staff present for the inspection

Seek legal advice if worried about legal position Advertisement

The row over packed lunches erupted after Cherry Tree Primary School, in Colchester, banned junk food from packed lunches.

Outraged parents said it was unfair as the school's menu offers unhealthy food including high sugar desserts like flapjacks, cookies and mousse.

Vikki Laws, of Colchester, said her daughter Tori, six, was not allowed to eat her Peperami sausage snack, which was confiscated and only returned at the end of the day with a note from teachers.

She said another parent was also told her child was not allowed to have scotch eggs in her lunch box.

Parents were also in uproar after Manley Park Primary School in Manchester banned healthy snacks such as cereal bars from children's packed lunches - despite offering pizza, chocolate fudge cake and fish fingers on its lunch menu.

Two mothers claimed staff confiscated a nut cereal bar and a packet of 100 per cent fruit chews because of their 'hidden sugar'.

It reignited the debate about the quality of school meals, at a time when NHS chiefs have warned obesity is the biggest threat to the nation's health.

But the Department for Education has backed the move, insisting schools are free to ban whatever they like from lunchboxes.

Governing bodies can decide whether to 'ban certain products to promote healthy eating'.

Six-year-old Tori Laws holds up Cherry Tree Primary's food guidelines. Her mother Vikki says teachers removed a peperami snack from her daughter's lunch box and scotch egg from another child

Schools are urged to consult parents first to 'ensure that any adopted policy is clearly communicated to parents and pupils'.

But education minister Lord Nash added: 'Schools have common law powers to search pupils, with their consent, for items.

'There is nothing to prevent schools from having a policy of inspecting lunch boxes for food items that are prohibited under their school food policies.

'A member of staff may confiscate, keep or destroy such items found as a result of the search if it is reasonable to do so in the circumstances.'

A member of staff may confiscate, keep or destroy such items found as a result of the search if it is reasonable to do so Education minister Lord Nash

In response to a parliamentary question, he set out how a search of a lunchbox could be carried out and who should be witnesses.

'It would be good practice for the pupil to be present during an inspection and for a second member of staff to be present if any items are to be confiscated.

'If authorities and schools are concerned about their legal position, they should seek their own legal advice.'

Iain Austin, a Labour member of the education select committee, said: ‘With Britain tumbling down the international league tables and with a generation entering the work force with less literacy and numeracy than the generation retiring, you would have thought that teachers might have better things to do than rummaging through children’s crisps and fruit.’

Ukip MP Douglas Carswell said: ‘The Department for Education really must be missing Michael Gove. They are resorting to the kind of nanny state stunts that you would have expected from Tony Blair’s Labour government 15 years ago.

‘It should be entirely up to schools and there is something sinister this. Government should get out of people’s lunchboxes and focus on trying to fix the big things like immigration and the deficit.’

Official figures show that around 20 per cent of children aged four and five in reception classes are classed as overweight.