Introduction:

Transparency and access to public information are important mechanisms that facilitate and enable participatory public policies. However, there is little precedent for applying its principles to food and nutrition policies.

Objective:

Explore the current state of transparency of the food policy of school canteens in Argentina through the chances of access to public information.

Methods:

Descriptive, cross-sectional and exploratory study with quantitative and qualitative methods based on analysis of government documents published until 2019 on the websites of ministries at the national level and of the 24 jurisdictions of the country. The technique of content analysis and triangulation by observer was used. 308 documents were included.

Results:

Twenty jurisdictions had regulations for access to public information and six had no regulations for school canteens. In any regulatory scenario (with/without a law on access to public information) access to information on school canteen policies was scarce. The most critical aspects were: indicators, period of implementation of food services, budgets, presence of a universal accessibility approach and articulation with other social policies.

Conclusions:

There is an urgent need to apply transparency criteria to school canteen policies. Governments at the national and sub-national levels must show a greater commitment to guarantee the right to access public information in food and nutrition policies and consolidate virtual environments as the main tool to bring the State closer to citizens.