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Examples in the guidance
Any examples in the guidance are provided as a starting point to show how services can meet (or exceed) the requirement. Services may choose to use other approaches better suited to their needs as long as they comply with the criteria.
Section sign symbol (§)
A section sign symbol (§) indicates criteria that may require additional comment from public health units (usually in the form of a health report) to assist the Ministry of Education in assessing services for compliance. The authority to direct a service provider to obtain a health report is outlined in Regulation 55.
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, Regulation 55 – New Zealand Legislation
HS19 Food and nutrition
Criteria
§ Food is served at appropriate times to meet the nutritional needs of each child while they are attending. Where food is provided by the service, it is of sufficient variety, quantity and quality to meet the nutritional and developmental needs of each child. Where food is provided by parents, the service encourages and promotes healthy eating guidelines.
Documentation required
A record of all food served during the service's hours of operation (other than that provided by parents for their own children). Records show the type of food provided and are available for inspection for 3 months after the food is served.
Rationale/intent
The criterion aims to uphold the health, safety and wellbeing of children by ensuring the service meets their nutritional needs or alternatively encourages parents to do so. Requirement to keep records for 12 months has been reduced to 3, as this is considered to be a more useful minimum period of time. Record-keeping requirements serve 2 purposes:
- to demonstrate compliance with the criterion and
- to provide useful information in the event of any allergic reactions that may develop in children attending.
Guidance
Food is served at appropriate times to meet the nutritional needs of children while they are attending
Services may have set mealtimes or have “rolling kai”, that is, that children are able to eat when they are hungry. It is important to ensure whichever practice is followed:
- food is available for tamariki when they are hungry
- children are supervised and seated while eating (HS22, below), and
- there is a place set aside for the children to sit and eat (PF15).
Where food is provided by the service, it is of sufficient variety, quantity and quality to meet the nutritional and developmental needs of each child
It is important to engage with whānau when determining the food to serve to tamariki that is of sufficient variety, quantity and quality to meet the nutritional and developmental needs of each child.
The Ministry of Health provide guidance which classifies foods based on their nutritional value with colour codes in the healthy food and drink guidance. The Ministry of Health have determined that healthy options (Green) should make up at least 75% of foods and drinks served at early learning services. For children under 2 years of age, all food and drink provided should be green.
Healthy food and drink guidance: Early learning services – Ministry of Health
The Ministry of Education would consider services to be in breach of this criteria if for example:
- services prepared foods for 4 to 6-year-olds in accordance with the Ministry of Health guidance for 1 to 3-year-olds for the sake of efficiency or
- services disregard the individual needs of tamariki who were not developing in accordance with expected range of development in small children or
- healthy options make up less than 75% of foods and drinks served.
Where food is provided by parents the service promotes and encourages healthy eating guidelines
Services may choose to develop a healthy food and drink policy with whānau.
Services may provide the healthy food and drink guidance to whānau at the time of enrolment. The guidance may be provided in hard copy, electronically or via an electronic link for whānau with internet access.
Healthy food and drink guidance: Early learning services – Ministry of Health
Services may display posters which encourage healthy foods and demonstrate how to prepare foods to meet the developmental needs of tamariki.
Documentation
Where a service provides food, a record of the daily menu outlining the ingredients will meet this requirement. Menus are required to be specific in case of an unexpected allergic reaction. For example, what type of fruit or the contents of a sandwich must be recorded to satisfy this requirement.
If food is provided by parents for a shared lunch a list of all food provided is required to meet this requirement
Keep the records of food served for 3 months.
Things to consider
The NZ Heart Foundation has information on their free Healthy Heart Award programme which provides structure and guidance around all aspects of food and nutrition. This includes multilingual lunchbox resources, policies, sample menus and resources to engage whānau and professional development for staff.
Early learning programmes and resources – NZ Heart Foundation
HS20 Food hygiene
Criteria
§ Food is prepared, served and stored hygienically.
Rationale/intent
The criterion aims to uphold the health and safety of children by ensuring hygienic practices occur in regard to food.
Guidance
Basic food hygiene is important to avoid outbreaks of food-borne illness in ECE centres.
A centre should provide enough fridge space to store chilled foods – including milk and yoghurt provided by parents for infants and children.
Under the Food Act 2014 and Food Regulations 2015, if you provide food as part of your ECE service it must be safe and suitable. Depending on what kind of food you provide, you may need to register and operate under a National Programme Level 2.
Steps for National Programme 2 – Ministry for Primary Industries
Use the Ministry for Primary Industries’ tool to find out if you need to register.
More information on the requirements of the Food Act and Food Regulations is available on the Food Act section of this website.
Food safety at early learning services
Where children are involved in food preparation on a regular basis for consumption by others, food hygiene practices must be maintained and children supervised and provided with guidance around not eating the food and discarding dropped items. There should be utensils provided for children and appropriate surfaces should be used.
Things to consider
Under the Food Act 2014 there are no specific food safety training requirements for early childhood education staff.
The tips for food safety on the MPI website is useful for anyone handling food.
Food safety at home – Ministry for Primary Industries
If you are operating a centre under National Programme 2, staff must have a good level of food safety knowledge relevant to the food provided at the centre and the ability to put it into practice.
For information on formal training courses, go to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority website.
Food Safety Assessment Standards – New Zealand Qualifications Authority
HS21 Drinking water
Criteria
§ An ample supply of water that is fit to drink is available to children at all times, and older children are able to access this water independently.
Rationale/intent
The criterion aims to uphold the health and safety of children by ensuring they have access to a clean drinking water supply. Requirement for independent access is based on evidence that self-access to water enables children to maintain an adequate level of hydration.
Guidance
There are different ways to provide drinking water to ensure children maintain an adequate hydration level. These include:
providing drinking fountains outdoors, or water coolers inside (these need to be secured to meet the standards of HS6 Securing furniture)
- using individually marked water bottles – these will need to be kept topped up and cleaned daily
- making water jugs and individual cups available for children to pour their own water. These need to be cleaned daily.
The provision of water should be included on the daily checks carried out be staff/adults at the centre.
The Ministry of Health have a number of publications on drinking water.
Drinking water – Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
Things to consider
Centres in rural or isolated areas that are not on a town water supply and use bores or water tanks must meet the Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand.
Standards, Rules, and Aesthetic Values – Taumata Arowai
Water Services (Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand) Regulations 2022 – New Zealand Legislation
These services should contact a health protection officer at their local public health unit or an environmental health officer at their local council for advice.
HS22 Supervision while eating
Criteria
Children are supervised and seated while eating.
Where food is provided by the service, foods that pose a high choking risk are not to be served unless prepared in accordance with best practice as set out in Ministry of Health's guide: Reducing food-related choking for babies and young children at early learning services.
Where food is provided by parents, the service promotes best practices as set out in the Ministry of Health's guide and must provide to all parents at the time of enrolment a copy of the pamphlet: Reducing food-related choking for babies and young children at early learning services.
Reducing food-related choking for babies and young childrenRationale/intent
The rationale is to uphold the safety of children by minimising the risk of children choking while eating.
Guidance
Children are supervised while eating
In this criterion, supervised means an adult is assigned to oversee children while they are eating to ensure attention is on the children and not on completing other tasks. The adult assigned must be in close proximity to the children who are eating and know how to respond if a child is choking or has an adverse reaction.
The steps on the KidsHealth page 'What to do if your baby chokes' outlines the appropriate response if a child is choking.
What to do if your baby chokes – KidsHealth
Children are seated while eating
Seated means that children’s weight is supported by their buttocks rather than their feet and their back is upright.
Where practical it is preferable that children are seated in a chair with their food directly in front of them to prevent the child needing to twist to the left or right, which can cause them to lose control of the food in their mouth.
Where food is provided by the service
Foods that pose a high choking risk to children must not be served unless prepared in accordance with the Ministry of Health guidance. This guidance outlines foods that should be excluded from services and how to alter other high-risk foods for different age groups, that is, for 1 to 3 years old, and 4 years up to 6 years.
Eating for healthy babies and toddlers outlines how to prepare foods for newborns to 1-year olds.
Eating for healthy babies and toddlers – HealthEd
When food is provided by parents
Services must provide a copy of the Ministry of Health Guidance at the time of enrolment and should record on the enrolment form that this information has been provided and understood by parents.
Services must promote the Ministry of Health Guidance and may demonstrate compliance by developing formal policies and procedure in partnership with whānau (GMA4 Parent involvement).
Any policy could include actions the service will take and how they will communicate with whānau if food is provided that is not prepared in accordance with the Ministry of Health guidance and the service does not consider it to be developmentally appropriate for that child.
Things to consider
Safety and choking
- How is children’s safety supported while they are eating? For example, making sure there are not too many distractions.
- Has a child had a history of early reflux? If so, extra vigilance over the introduction of new foods is essential.
- If food is provided selecting appropriate food for individual children is very important to minimise choking risk. It is important to discuss with a parent or caregiver the foods children can manage safely rather than relying on age alone as the indicator.
- Be aware of foods which are more likely to cause choking.
- Small hard foods that are difficult for children to bite or chew (for example, nuts, large seeds, popcorn husks, raw carrot, apple, celery)
- small round foods that can get stuck in children’s throats (for example, grapes, berries, raisins, sultanas, peas, watermelon seeds, lollies)
- foods with skins or leaves that are difficult to chew (for example, sausages, chicken, lettuce, nectarines)
- compressible food which can squash into the shape of a child’s throat and get stuck there (for example, hot dogs, sausages, pieces of cooked meat, popcorn)
- thick pastes that can get stuck in children’s throats (for example, chocolate spreads, peanut butter)
- fibrous or stringy foods that are difficult for children to chew (for example, celery, rhubarb, raw pineapple)
- To reduce the risk of choking on these foods:
- alter the food texture – grate, cook, finely chop or mash the food
- remove the high-risk parts of the food – peel off the skin or remove the strong fibres.
Learning whilst eating
- How do children learn what is expected of them while eating? For example, to remain seated until they have finished eating
- How is children’s learning supported while supervising their eating
- What other learning is happening while eating? For example, using utensils, textures, colours, appropriate social interactions.
HS23 Bottle feeding
Criteria
Applies only to services licensed for under 2-year-olds
Infants under the age of 6 months and other children unable to drink independently are held semi-upright when being fed. Any infant milk food given to a child under the age of 12 months is of a type approved by the child's parent.
Rationale/intent
The criterion aims to uphold the safety and wellbeing of children by ensuring they are not 'propped' and left unattended with a bottle. The criterion also ensures a basic level of nurturing behaviour towards infants.
Guidance
Infants or other children with special needs who may not be able to drink independently should not be 'propped up' and left unattended by adults as they can move around or slide over which may lead to choking. Staff ratios should be sufficient for this and providing a comfortable adult sized chair will assist the required one-on-one supervision.
Centres need to decide who provides any infant formula and bottles. If formula is provided, parental approval of the brand/type is required before it is used. If the usual brand/type is unavailable, parental approval of any substitute is also required prior to use.
The service needs to have a procedure for hygienic preparation of bottles including:
- sterilisation of bottles
- handwashing
- timing of preparation – as close as possible to feeding time
- following instructions for mixing formula (as different brands use different size scoops and volumes of water).
If storage of made-up formula brought by parents is necessary, it should only be kept in the refrigerator for a maximum of 4 hours past the time it is made up.
The Ministry of Health has produced a publication on infant formula.
