Fears that food prices could send school meals back to pre-Jamie Oliver Turkey Twizzler days

The spectre of the Turkey Twizzler has returned as caterers fear school meal standards could start to deteriorate if food prices continue to rise and funding fails to keep pace.

Nearly 20 years ago, Jamie Oliver led a revolution of school dinners, banishing the infamous processed poultry from the canteen and forcing the government to bring in new standards alongside extra funding.

But with inflation this week topping 11% - and food prices up 16% this year - it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep quality and portion sizes up.

Following a 7p increase over the summer, schools now receive £2.41 per Universal Infant Free School Meal - the meals given to all reception, year one and year two pupils. For free school meals for older children, they are given £2.47 by the government.

Andrew Lipscomb, operations manager for Norse Catering, which provides meals for more than 200 schools across Norfolk and Suffolk, said around 60% of that is spent on staffing costs.

That leaves around £1 per meal for ingredients.

"It makes it very, very difficult to be able to do what we want to do," said Mr Lipscomb, who remembers the days of "ping" school meals made in a microwave when he first began working for Norse 30 years ago.

"In certain cases this may be the only meal that a child has. So if it's not nutritionally balanced, it's not wholesome, it's not big enough - they'll fail."

He said he would be "devastated" to see standards fall again, adding: "Children, if they eat properly, will learn better. We're helping teach that next generation of prime ministers. That's how important school meals are."

A recent survey by the Soil Association's Food For Life campaign found many schools and caterers were already having to make changes.

One in eight admitted they had already begun missing some of the set standards for lunches, while more than half feared they would need to use more processed food in the future.

More than a quarter have reduced the amount of meat they use, with reports of "bulking out" meals with more pasta, and using more raw food to reduce cooking.

One caterer described it as a "real mess".

Rob Percival, from the Soil Association, said: "Caterers are doing their best to continue to meet the legal school food standards but there are challenges in supply chains, the cost of fresh produce of staple foods like pasta and so on are rising.

"Meat is increasingly expensive and what we're hearing from our caterers is while they are managing the juggling act at the moment, if these trends continue, if energy prices continue to rise, if food prices continue to rise, they risk being non compliant with those legal standards."

At Queen's Hills School near Norwich, tacos, enchiladas, and lasagna are favourites on the menu for many pupils.

Headteacher Matthew Cross knows how important decent meals are to his children. The school has already had to set up a food bank in recognition of the tough times families are facing.

The number of pupils using its breakfast club is also increasing.

"We know a well-balanced diet is part of getting ready for learning," he said. "I've always seen it within my remit as a headteacher - but it's perhaps increasingly so in the current climate."

The Soil Association is among many organisations calling for free school meals to be offered to even more children.

As well as ensuring pupils in need get a nutritious, hot meal each day, Mr Percival said increasing the number of pupils each school caters for would allow them to bulk buy more ingredients and get better deals on ingredients.

In a statement, the Department for Education said it was "supporting more children and young people than ever" with more than a third of pupils were receiving free school meals.

It added: "Schools are responsible for providing nutritious school meals and can agree individual contracts to meet this duty, using their core funding which is increasing by £4bn this academic year alone – a 7% increase in cash terms per pupil from last year."

But many schools are already worried about how to make their funding stretch with pay increases for teachers already due to come out of their existing budgets and massive increases on their energy bills.

Funding for free school meals is not ring-fenced and some caterers fear headteachers will be tempted to spend less on catering contracts to hold back money for other expenses.

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