School canteens will have to abide by a set of guidelines issued by the Health Ministry from next month.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the guidelines included a list of more than 70 healthy food options which canteen operators must choose, or risk losing their contract.
The sugar, salt and oil content in each food item were taken into account.
"There are guidelines for canteen operators to follow, but they are not wholesome enough to reduce obesity among schoolchildren," he said.
Liow was speaking after launching a eat-healthy campaign for primary schoolchildren at Sekolah Wawasan Subang Jaya here yesterday.
He added that a Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia study showed that the favourite canteen food was nasi lemak, mee goreng and nasi ayam.
"They can't eat these items every day. But this will change with the new guidelines," he said.
Liow pointed out that 86.6 per cent of schoolchildren buy food from canteens.
"Unhealthy food will not help reduce the obesity rate among children."
Liow said the guidelines would also be applied to the type of food hawkers outside schools could sell.
"If they want to sell food to students, it has to be healthy snacks and not sweet, sour or salty junk food."
