The Prince of Wales has praised a new awards scheme aiming to take the Jamie Oliver Healthy School Dinners campaign a step further.

The Prince of Wales has praised a new awards scheme aiming to take the Jamie Oliver Healthy School Dinners campaign a step further.

Prince Charles yesterday paid tribute to organisers of the Food For Life partnership which is attempting to "rescue" a generation of "over-industrialised" youngsters who know little about the origin of the food they eat.

The new awards scheme encourages schools south of the border to improve their "food culture" and gives people the opportunity to plant, grow and cook their own produce and eat healthier meat and fish.

Speaking at the inaugural awards ceremony in London, the prince said: "Over the last 40 years it would appear we have created a whole generation - the parents of the children you teach - whose understanding of where food comes from and how it is produced is severely limited. And it is causing real harm. The over-reliance on packaged, processed food is not just damaging our own health, but damaging our bio-diversity, our soil to agro-chemicals and our water table to pesticides."

The prince went on to praise celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, describing him as a "remarkable man" for his efforts to improve the quality of school dinners in his TV campaign launched in 2005.