The Department of Education has announced that all schools are to ban sandwiches to force parents to come up with healthy lunch alternatives.

In a dramatic move to try to tackle childhood obesity, the Department of Education will introduce the sandwich ban from the start of May.

A spokesperson said “There are far too many parents putting sandwiches in kids lunchboxes and we need to tackle this once and for all.”

It’s expected that supermarkets, as well as bread and filling brands will react angrily to the proposed ban, fearing huge drops in sales of sandwich ingredients as parents seek replacement lunch ideas. Pasta and salad ingredient producers, on the other hand, have reacted positively to the announcement, gearing up to position themselves as healthy but different options to choose from.

If you’re facing the sandwich ban, here’s our handy list of possible substitutes for the lunchbox:

• hummus and veggies
• homemade soup in a flask
• pasta
• salad in a jar
• sushi
• falafels
• nothing, just feed them when they get home