Heart Foundation health promotion co-ordinator Joanne Arthur said the foundation's push for healthy canteen food was made more difficult when the Government scrapped regulations in 2009 mandating healthy food for canteens.
Ms Arthur said St Hilda's Collegiate, which is to be awarded a Heart Start certificate in recognition of its comprehensive healthy food programme, helped disprove a "misconception" healthy food was more expensive.
Although healthy food took longer to prepare, meaning schools faced higher overheads, costs levelled out if the canteen was well run, including buying food in season.
She said the school's canteen manager, caterer Nickee Tamati, had a "food conscience" which showed in the canteen menu.
Food was hearty but low-fat, seasonal, made from scratch rather than processed, used free-range eggs, and free-range meat where possible.
Ms Arthur said Dunedin canteens were a "mixed bag", and there were good things happening in other high schools, too.
However, healthy food had slipped down the priority list for some principals and school administrators.
It was disappointing a typical canteen lunch for some Dunedin school pupils was pies, soft drinks, and large, chocolate-chip biscuits.
A meal comprising these elements had nearly double the kilojoules needed for lunch by a teenager at school.
Last Friday, the University of Otago hosted an obesity seminar which was addressed by Green, Labour, and National MPs.
National MP Michael Woodhouse said compulsion in school canteens did not work, as pupils bought unhealthy food elsewhere.
Nutrition and diabetes expert Prof Jim Mann said he hoped research on canteen food would be carried out to ascertain the effects of the change.
