By JAMES GARDINER
A food expert has recommended putting fish and chips back on the menu in prisons, saying it is a "cultural requirement" not being met by the Corrections Department.
The department spent $30,000 on a report of a food audit of meals served at two prisons in Canterbury in
June and July this year, and was told prisoners were getting too much food for the amount of activity they did, but not enough fruit, salads and wholegrains.
"The major cultural requirements not being met are for fish and chips and wholegrain bread," says the report author, Dr Heather Spence, of Food Management (NZ).
The report does not explain what is meant by the term cultural - or whose culture.
Dr Spence did not return calls and the Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage, Helen Clark, referred queries on cultural requirements to Corrections Minister Matt Robson, who referred them back to the department, which said fish and chips was a New Zealand "icon".
The report says fish and chips are the meal missed most by inmates and putting it on the menu would be "an opportunity that involves relatively small effort for a big return".
National Party corrections spokesman Brian Neeson asked if prisons were trying to punish crime or attract more inmates.
The department has finalised its recent report and approved five recommendations, including bringing all prison meals up to the standards consistent with Health Ministry guidelines for food and nutrition.
Department chief financial officer Richard Morris said he was not aware of any prisons serving fish and chips regularly.
He presumed by "cultural" that Dr Spence meant fish and chips was "an icon type of food".
Massey University nutritionist Professor John Birkbeck said fish and chips were "probably not a good idea" for prisons, given they were usually high in saturated fat and the people who had the greatest propensity for heart disease in this country, Maori and the poor, were over-represented in prison inmate statistics.
* james_gardiner@nzherald.co.nz
