IN an ideal world, of course, children would eat proper food all the time. It's healthier, easier and cheaper. And now we've all listened to Jamie Oliver, there's even more incentive to feed our children properly.

But as we don't live in an ideal world, sometimes it's easier to give them chicken nuggets or fish fingers. After all, chicken and fish must be healthy, mustn't they? Well, it all depends.

Fish, for instance, is a vital food. Just how vital, we're only beginning to understand. But how much fish is there in fish fingers? How much chicken in a nugget? We've been studying the small print.

FILLETED FISH FINGERS

All these had a high proportion of fish and were made from the fish fillet - i.e. the proper main bit of NAMED fish and not just scraps and scrapings and the bits you might well prefer not to think about. They actually tasted of fish - especially the Marks & Spencer ones, which were nicely chunky.

FISH PERCENTAGES

65 per cent - Atlantic Fillet Fish Fingers

Made from Alaskan Pollock and perfectly respectable.

64 per cent - Birds Eye Haddock Fillet Fish Fingers

64 per cent - Tesco Cod Fillet Fish Fingers

62 per cent - Marks & Spencer Chunky Cod Fillet Fish Fingers

North Atlantic cod, with a picture of a cod on the packet, so you know.

58 per cent - Sainsbury's Cod Fillet Fish Fingers

56 per cent - Morrisons Haddock Fillet Fish Fingers

58 per cent - Ross Fish Fillet Fingers

Unnamed fish, but all fillet.

FAIRLY FISHY

What fish? Which bit of it? We don't know, but at least there's a lot of it.

FISH PERCENTAGES

65 per cent - Aldi Cod Fish Fingers

All cod, but not fillet. Taste fine.

65 per cent - Tesco Value

Minced white fish

OVERALL: Fish fingers - if grilled or oven cooked - are a decent choice for children. Plenty of fish, although you don't always know where from, reasonable levels of fat - those breadcrumbs and batter - and manufacturers are also trying to cut down on the salt. So fish fingers get the thumbs up.

CHICKEN NUGGETS, meanwhile, are a bit different. Small bits of chicken wrapped in breadcrumbs. Sometimes the chicken, or some of it, is pure breast meat. Sometimes it isn't. Do you really want to think about where it came from?

Also many of these nuggets were very high in fat, especially for children. Then many manufacturers actually recommended deep frying as a way of cooking. You can almost see the arteries clogging.

Chicken nuggets are actually very easy to make yourself, so you know just what your children are getting.

CHICKEN PERCENTAGES

59 per cent - Tesco Free From

Free from wheat and gluten. But 100g has 17.4g fat, which is a lot.

52 per cent - Birds Eye Chicken Dippers

Made mainly from chicken breast. But 100g has 13.2g fat.

50 per cent - Sainsbury's Blue Parrot

A range of healthier food specifically designed for children. 100g gives 17.5g fat. This is healthy?

49 per cent - Sainsbury's Southern Fried

100g has 21.3g of fat - nearly a third of an adult's daily allowance.

30 per cent - Sainbsury's Basics

The labelling is at least clear. Chopped and shaped chicken with added water and textured wheat protein. 18.5g fat per 100g.

47 per cent - Tesco Chicken Pops

100g has 14.3 g fat. But one of their serving suggestions includes deep frying, which could add a lot more fat.

Crazy Crocodile Chicken Dippers

It doesn't say just how much of this is chicken, only that 60 per cent of the chicken is chicken breast, but it's probably about 44 per cent. 100g has 8.4g fat - which makes them better than most.

OVERALL: Many of these don't contain much chicken. And do you really want to give your children that much fat?