The food served to inmates of Dutch prisons is going to be checked for its nutritional qualities. The Netherlands' government Inspectorate of Sanction Implementations is responding to recent complaints by detainees who said they did not get enough food and were left hungry.

A spokesperson for the Dutch prisons said that food rations were based on the needs of the biggest eaters - young men. The national Nutritional Advice Centre was involved in designing the menus.

The Inspectorate, which is part of the Justice ministry, says an investigation of jail food had been planned for 2011 anyway. Prisons were reported to be throwing food away as waste.

When prisons' existing contracts with caterers run out, they will have to join a national scheme which is governed by European tendering rules. The Justice ministry has said it hopes this will utimately lead to less waste.

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