Favourites including chouriço sandwiches, croissants, fries, hamburgers, hot dogs and juices with added sugar are all for the axe from the school canteen or from vending machines.

The diploma published in Diário da República presents a list with more than fifty products banned in schools, in a bid to offer students foods with reduced levels of salt, sugar and others with high calorific values.

The rules take effect within a month and schools have until the end of September to review contracts with suppliers. However, the shelves of some canteens and vending machines may remain unchanged, as only contracts that do not involve the payment of compensation will be reviewed.

The Government wants public schools to start offering "nutritionally balanced, healthy and safe meals."

When classes start, schools should no longer have “cakes or pastries with puff pastry and/or with cream and/or frosting, such as palmiers, milfolhas, bolas de Berlim, donuts, sweet pastries, croissants or cupcakes”.

And the days are numbered for fast food meals, including hamburgers, hot dogs, pizzas or lasagna, as well as ice cream.

Also when it comes to savoury snacks, croquettes, pies, samosas, soft dough pastries, cod pastries or savoury puff pastries are all to disappear from the menu.

Sandwiches or other products with chouriço, sausage, mortadella, ham or bacon are also banned, as well as sandwiches or other products containing ketchup, mayonnaise or mustard. These ingredients are to replaced with low-fat cheese, egg, low-fat ham, tuna or other preserved fish with a low salt content or bread and these sandwiches should be accompanied with vegetables, such as lettuce, tomato, grated carrots and red cabbage, suggests the Ministry of Education in the order.

The diploma also establishes the end of biscuits, namely “Belgian-type biscuits, butter biscuits, biscuits with chocolate chips, chocolate biscuits, biscuits filled with cream and cookies with frosting”.

The list of prohibitions also extends to beverages, with the sale of fruit sodas, with cola or tea extract in public schools, as well as flavoured water, powdered refreshments, energy drinks and soda preparations.

Instead children will have access to free drinking water alongside bottled water and low fat milk and yogurts while there will also be “herbal infusions” and no added sugar vegetable drinks available.

It is also the end of sweets, chewing gum with sugar, lollipops or gummies, as well as sweet or savoury snacks.

As for school meals, they must comply with the guidelines of the Directorate-General for Education (DGE) and the menus should be prepared, whenever possible, under the guidance of nutritionists.

The menus and composition of the meals must adhere to the principles of the Mediterranean diet, as well as vegetarian meals, diets justified by medical prescription (such as food allergies or intolerances) and diets justified by religious reasons.