Schools in New Zealand, where one in five children are officially overweight, were given approval Thursday to restore fatty foods and fizzy drinks to tuck shops selling food on their premises, reported dpa.
Teachers would no longer have to act as "food police," said Education Minister Anne Tolley, whose conservative government was elected in November, as she abolished a ruling that schools selling food must "make only healthy options available."
The instruction issued by the former social democratic government, which Tolley's National Party accused of running a "nanny state," was an example of "unnecessary bureaucracy," she said.
Opposition Green Party legislator Sue Kedgley dubbed it "an astonishingly stupid move which will cost the nation dearly."
With poor diet the leading cause of premature death and disease in New Zealand, she asked why the government would scrap a programme "designed to tackle the looming epidemics in obesity-related illness and make sure our kids have healthy habits modelled at school."