Almost half of children's hospital main meals exceed school nutritional standards for salt or saturated fat, according to new research.

A chicken tikka masala and rice served in one hospital contained 14 times more salt (2.20g vs. 0.15g/portion) and 8.5 times more saturated fat (6.0g vs. 0.7g/portion) than a chicken & vegetable balti with rice served within a school, the Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) research showed.

Chairman of CASH professor Graham MacGregor, said: "When such great progress has been made on what pupils are eating in school it is shocking that children in hospitals are being ignored."

Last month, it was announced that the government had decided to transfer responsibility for nutrition policy from the Food Standards Agency to the Department of Health (DOH) from October 1st onwards.

As a result, the DOH is now caring for several matters including nutritional labelling, nutrition surveys and how food reformulation can be utilised to reduce salt, saturated fat and sugar levels.