How the new dietary guidelines could impact school meals

"And those rules may be changing soon. In early January, the Department of Health and Human Services and the USDA unveiled new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, along with a new food pyramid. The USDA sets school nutrition standards based on those dietary guidelines, which now place an emphasis on protein and encourage Americans to consume full-fat dairy products and limit highly processed foods."

"Cutting back on ready-to-eat school meals won't be easy Highly processed and ready-to-eat foods often contain added sugars and salt. Think mac and cheese, pizza, french fries and individually packaged peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. These foods are also a big part of many school meals, said Nelson. That's because schools often lack adequate kitchen infrastructure to prepare meals from scratch."

Schools that receive federal funding for meals must follow USDA nutrition standards tied to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. New guidelines emphasize protein, allow full-fat dairy, and recommend limiting highly processed foods. Meeting school meal requirements requires balancing calorie minimums and maximums daily and weekly and meeting vegetable subgroup categories. Many schools rely on ready-to-eat, highly processed items because kitchen facilities were designed for reheating rather than scratch cooking. Infrastructure limits and reliance on processed foods make shifting away from ready-to-eat meals difficult, even though districts have reduced sodium and sugar through product reformulation and recipe changes.

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