ITis dripping with fat, contains around half the daily recommended calories for an adult and is being served up by fastfood outlets outside a school near you.

Known as a "hoagie", the combination of chips, doner kebab meat and cheese - which contains 136g of fat and 1224 calories - has been identified as the unhealthiest fastfood meal served to pupils in a recent survey.

Environmental health officers are now to write to nearly 300 chip shops, burger vans and other fast-food outlets popular with pupils, after research showed alarmingly high levels of salt and fat in outlets across 11 local authorities in the west of Scotland.

Deep-fried black pudding and chips, battered pizza with chips and a large chip roll with cheese all featured among the worst meals for fat content.

The study, by the West of Scotland Food Liaison Group, found that the vast majority of the food purchased exceeded the recommended maximum levels for fat and salt laid down in the Scottish Executive's Hungry for Success initiative for school meals.

Overall, the fat content in 55- percent of samples was higher than the recommended maximum of 25.1g per 100g and 85- percent had more sodium than the recommended level of 0.6g in 100g.

Of these, 34- percent had more than double the recommended level of fat and around half contained more than double the level of sodium.

Now, environmental health officials are to write to all those outlets surveyed to highlight the high fat and salt content in their food and to advise them how to make it more healthy.

In June, concerns over the food served outside schools grew after figures showed the number of pupils eating school meals across Scotland had fallen since healthier menus were introduced. While Jamie Oliver highlighted the dangers of junk food, such as the infamous turkey twizzlers, in English schools, Scotland already had much higher nutritional standards. However, official statistics showed that, in the second year since Holyrood ministers launched a healthy eating campaign, take-up of lunches in primary and secondary schools dropped by more than two percentage points to 46.7- percent of the total roll.

The figures for 2005, which show a particular resistance in secondary schools, come against a previous drop in 2004, where take-up fell from 50.6- percent to 49.3- percent. The phenomenon was blamed on opposition to the new healthier options from pupils whose normal diet consists of food such as chips, burgers and pizzas.

Craig Brown, secretary of the West of Scotland Food Liaison Group - which covers 11 council areas including Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire and Dunbartonshire - said environmental health officers would now be contacting the owners of all 299 outlets surveyed.

The letters will highlight the high content of fat and salt in their food and compare them with the executive's recommendations.

Owners of fast-food outlets will also be asked to cut down on the amount of salt used in cooking, to switch from animal fat to vegetable fat for deep frying and to use low-fat spread and low-fat mayonnaise in sandwiches.

"Diet-related ill-health is one of the most serious public health issues facing the population in the west of Scotland.

The importance of establishing a well-balanced diet from early childhood has clear and proven benefits well into old age, " said Mr Brown.

"Although a lot of work has been established in Scotland to create healthy and interesting school lunch menus, less than half of children take up school lunches with a high proportion of pupils opting for food from nearby shops such as chip shops, fast-food vans and takeaway shops.

"We hope that by highlighting the poor nutritional content of this food and the health risks it poses to children, parents and pupils will make more informed decisions on their health and choice of lunch."

The group, which aims to repeat the survey at a later date, will pass the findings onto the Food Standards Agency. So far, ministers have spent GBP63m on Hungry for Success, which provides free fruit to primaries and sets nutritional standards for school meals.

The figures showed that the campaign has already taken huge strides forward with all primary schools now giving free fresh fruit to P1 and P2 pupils and 94- percent of all schools making free chilled water available to staff and pupils.

An executive spokeswoman said: "School meals are now healthy, nutritious and tasty and schools are working to increase take-up by ensuring their dining areas are the kind of places children want to be.

"We'd obviously welcome any initiatives to drive up the standards of food children eat outside school. If they can develop a taste for healthy eating at a young age, these are likely to stay with them for life."

However, Fiona Hyslop, education spokeswoman for the SNP, called for ministers to introduce free school meals to all pupils from P1 to P3 to tackle the problem.

"Although the quality of school meals is improving, pupils are still being turned off, and that is what we have to address, " she said.

The Scottish Executive's fat and salt guidelines are: Primary (Infants 5-6 years): salt - maximum of 180mg per meal;

fat - maximum of 19g per meal.

Primary (7-10): salt - 360mg;

fat - 21.7g. Secondary: salt - 510mg; fat - 25.1g.

FIVE WORST TAKEAWAYS

1 Chips, cheese and doner kebab meat 136g fat 9.6g salt 1224 calories

2 Black pudding and chips 130g fat 5.6g salt 1178 calories

3 Roll with chips and cheese 113g fat 4.3g salt 1016 calories

4 Deep-fried pizza and chips 99.5g fat 3.6g salt 896 calories

5 Baked bridies with a yum yum 79g fat 3.9g salt 710 calories