Tapioca is officially Britain's most hated school dish, closely followed by cabbage and overcooked vegetables, according to a survey just published.

　　The starchy dish, nicknamed“frogspawn”by generations of children, topped a list of dubious canteen classics that also included liver (in sixth place), spam fritters (11th), macaroni (13th) and Brussels sprouts (20th).

　　Favorites, in order, were fish and chips, ice cream, sponge pudding, another pudding known as“jam roly poly,”and jelly.

　　One in three people surveyed by BBC Good Food magazine and the Friends Reunited website said they hated school meals so much that they devised ways to get rid of them when their minders weren’t looking.

　　One respondent confessed to going so far as to hide prunes and custard inside her underwear.

　　More than half of the 2,000 people who took part in the survey said they were so scarred by school dinners that the experience still affected their eating habits.