The National Student Nutrition Office and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention have jointly developed software to help balance rural students' nutrition, a Ministry of Education official said on Friday.

Tian Zuyin, deputy director of the Department of Finance at the Ministry of Education, told a news conference that the software could make menus and shopping plans, evaluate nutrition, record meals, and educate teachers and students.

A total of 5,000 sets of the software will be released to provinces and counties. The software can be downloaded for free from the Ministry of Education's website.

It aims at providing scientific guidance on rural students' nutrition and recording what students eat.

Premier Wen Jiabao said in 2011 that the central government would invest 1.6 billion yuan ($266.67 million) annually to subsidize rural students' meals, benefiting 26 million students in 699 counties.

The central government has also invested 30 billion yuan to build canteens in rural schools in a three-year project launched in 2011.