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The days of serving chicken nuggets, burgers and fizzy drinks are coming to an end in British schools after the government took the extraordinary step yesterday of banning junk food within a year -- a move proponents hope will be emulated in Canada.

British Education Secretary Ruth Kelly said that starting next September, junk food high in fat, salt or sugar will be banned from school cafeterias, and vending machines will sell only healthy fare.

"I am absolutely clear that the scandal of junk food served every day in school canteens must end," Ms. Kelly said.

The government's move follows a high-profile campaign by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who in a television crusade exposed the grisly nature of food in British schools. He was shocked by the turkey twizzlers, which he called "processed junk," and the chicken nuggets shaped like soccer players. Given the task of feeding students (for less than a dollar a child), Mr. Oliver initially ran into stiff resistance from youngsters unimpressed by healthy stir-fries and curries, but he gradually won them over.

Some proponents of healthy eating quipped yesterday that maybe Canada needs a Jamie Oliver-type to lead a crusade to ban junk food from the nation's schools.

In recent years, Canadian parents, educators and health officials have become increasingly alarmed by the rapid rise in childhood obesity, and say that not enough is being done to combat the problem on this side of the Atlantic.

"The research tells us we've got a problem on our hands," said Dale Bayley, president of the Canadian Association for School Health, a non-profit group that promotes health in schools.

The challenge in this country, unlike in Britain, is that there is no federal body overseeing the changes, he said. "Co-ordination will help, but because you've got provincial departments of health and provincial departments of education, and even those have difficulties working together, it's tough."

There has been some movement in a handful of provinces, though.

The Ontario government, for example, has banned the sale of chocolate bars, other candy and pop in elementary-school vending machines. But the province has stopped short of removing fatty foods altogether in the lower grades. Pizza lunches can still be offered.

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell has promised to ban junk food within four years from all public schools.

The government is currently piloting a fruit-and-vegetable snack program at 10 elementary schools.

And in Nova Scotia, the government is consulting with parents, educators and students on how to move forward on serving healthier fare in schools.

"The more we learn about the situation when you look at the obesity rates, it's very important that this is being pulled together and we're working forward as fast as we can to implement the policy," said Sue McKeage, a spokeswoman for the province's Education Department.

But some critics charge that provinces are not moving fast enough in ridding schools of candy machines and French fries.

"The Brits are taking a big step forward. . . . That's a step in the right direction," said David Lau, a professor of medicine at the University of Calgary and president of Obesity Canada, a non-profit group of health-care professionals.

"We don't have school policies per se in place. Most of the provincial governments don't have any policies."

For school boards, the vending machines and food contracts are a lucrative revenue source at a time when they have been struggling with budget cuts.

The money helps pay for team uniforms and trips.

Brian Woodland, spokesman for the Peel District School Board, which serves the Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon areas west of Toronto, said his board is working within its food contract to make sure at least one healthy meal is offered daily in high-school cafeterias at a lower price than the regular meals.

There is no discussion of changing what is being sold in high-school vending machines, he said. In elementary and middle schools that have vending machines, bottled water, apple juice and orange juice are sold.

If high schools do not serve both the healthy foods and the junk foods, students "will walk to the mall or the nearby fast-food restaurant," Mr. Woodland said.

But Lucy Valleau, chairwoman of the school nutrition working group of the Ontario Society of Nutrition Professionals in Public Health, said schools should be "role-modelling healthy behaviour."

"The school should be a safe haven for students to go. They should be safe and have healthy food choices," she said.

"There's no need to be selling food with minimal nutrition value in secondary-school cafeterias," Ms. Valleau said.