By Bunmi Yekini
The World Health Organization on Tuesday called on governments to radically improve the food children eat at school, warning that unhealthy school meals are helping to fuel a global surge in childhood obesity even as undernutrition remains widespread.
In new global guidelines, the U.N. health agency urged countries for the first time to adopt a “whole-school approach” to food – ensuring that everything sold or provided on school premises, from canteens to vending points, supports healthy diets.
The guidance comes as the world confronts what WHO describes as a “double burden” of malnutrition. In 2025, about one in 10 school-aged children and adolescents, roughly 188 million, were living with obesity worldwide, exceeding for the first time the number who are underweight.
“The food children eat at school, and the environments that shape what they eat, can have a profound impact on their learning, and lifelong consequences for their health and well-being,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. “Getting nutrition right at school is critical for preventing disease later in life and creating healthier adults.”
Children spend much of their day in school, making it a powerful setting for shaping lifelong eating habits and narrowing nutrition gaps, WHO said. Yet despite an estimated 466 million children receiving school meals globally, there is still limited information about the nutritional quality of the food they are served.
Under the new guideline, WHO recommends that countries set and enforce standards to increase the availability and consumption of healthy foods and drinks while limiting unhealthy options. It also encourages schools to use “nudging” strategies – such as changing how foods are placed, presented or priced, to make healthier choices easier and more appealing to students.
The agency stressed that policies alone are not enough. Monitoring and enforcement are essential to ensure schools actually follow nutrition rules.
According to WHO data, 104 countries had policies on healthy school food as of October 2025, with nearly three-quarters including mandatory criteria on what meals should contain. However, only 48 had policies restricting the marketing of foods high in sugar, salt or unhealthy fats in school settings.
The guideline was developed by an international, multidisciplinary panel of experts and forms part of WHO’s broader push to create healthier food environments, including its global plan to halt the rise in obesity.
WHO said it would support countries to adapt and implement the recommendations through technical assistance and knowledge-sharing. To mark the launch, the agency is hosting a global webinar later on Tuesday.