PUPILS across the region would eat healthier foods, such as salads, if they were presented in a trendy way, according to experts.

Experiments at several schools in the North-East have shown a big increase in the number of students choosing healthy lunches when salads are presented in a pick 'n' mix bar, as they might be in a restaurant.

At one school, in Middlesbrough, more than 40 per cent of pupils eat salad for lunch - now they can choose from a wide range of cold meats and salad bar options.

Before the experiment, at Tollesby Special School, the school chefs put out salad bowls but they remained largely untouched.

The new salad bar, made by Four Corners Food Service Products, of Morton Park, Darlington, was introduced after the school council decided it wanted more healthy choices.

Veronica Morgan, assistant headteacher, said: "It has been brilliant success and is very popular. The salad is always beautifully presented and that makes a big difference."

The news comes as the issue of school dinners has been put in the spotlight by the TV programme, Jamie's School Dinners, which was filmed partly at a school in Peterlee, County Durham.

Four Corners Food Service Products has already provided salad bars to ten local education authorities and 100 schools across the country, including Hartlepool, Stockton, Sunderland and Newcastle. It is in talks with the Darlington authority.

The company has put the bars in six schools in and around Stockton - Thornaby Village School, St Patrick's Comprehensive and Bader Primary, all Thornaby; St Paul's Primary, Billingham; St Mary's Primary, Long Newton; and St Cuthbert's Primary, Stockton.

There are another 13 Stockton schools operating their own salad bars.

A Stockton Borough Council spokeswoman said: "The scheme is going fantastically well and the children are enjoying it immensely. Even children who have hot dinners are also choosing salad."

Four Corners director John Reeves said: "We have had a lot of success in primary schools. Children like it when salad is displayed as it would be in somewhere like Pizza Hut. We have found the Jamie Oliver TV programme has also helped us out."