School meal directors got a break this month when Congress approved a multiagency appropriations package that maintains current limits on sodium in school meals and gives schools the option to serve low-fat flavored milk.
The bill passed by Congress includes a provision that keeps sodium limits for school breakfast and lunch at their current level through the 2026-2027 school year, after which the limits cannot be more stringent than the Target 2 limits originally envisioned in a rule published by the Food and Nutrition Service in 2012.
School nutrition directors who gathered at the School Nutrition Association’s recent legislative conference in Washington expressed concern about a 2023 proposal that would require cuts to sodium beyond those already required. It also would, for the first time, impose limits on added sugar levels in breakfasts and lunches — first by limiting added sugars in breakfast cereals, flavored milk, grain-based desserts, and yogurt in the fall of 2025.
Two years later, the proposal would cap added sugars across the weekly menu to “less than 10% of calories per meal, on average, to better align meals with the dietary guidelines,” the Food and Nutrition Service said.
SNA spokesperson Diane Pratt-Heavner said while SNA was pleased with the congressional action, “It's critical to acknowledge that Target 2 limits will still require significant sodium reductions, and additional funds are necessary for related equipment, staffing and food costs.”
The freeze on sodium levels was not welcomed by all.
Dianne Pratt-Heavner, SNA
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a research and advocacy group, called out the school meals rider as well as another in the appropriations bill prohibiting the Food and Drug Administration’s use of funds to “develop, issue, promote or advance” voluntary sodium reduction targets for industry until completion of an assessment on the impact of current voluntary targets.
“These latest policy riders represent a regression in our collective endeavor to enhance the American diet,” CSPI said. “It is imperative for Congress to facilitate, not halt, the advancement of sodium reduction measures that are essential for the betterment of public health.”
Despite the congressional action, Pratt-Heavner said some meal directors are still struggling to meet the current “transitional standards” for sodium set in 2020, which superseded regulations USDA published in 2012.
The transitional standards established the current sodium Target 1A, effective July 2023, Pratt-Heavner noted. That limit “is effective until the long-term standards in USDA's proposed/soon-to-be-final rule take effect,” she added. “USDA's proposed rule created new targets, with what was Target 2 falling between the first proposed reduction and the second.”
“Target 2 limits will still require significant sodium reductions, and additional funds are necessary for related equipment, staffing and food costs,” she said.
“Further sodium and sugar reductions necessitate a combination of further recipe development by companies providing pre-prepared foods and school meal program investments to expand scratch cooking. Research shows school meals are the healthiest meals children are eating because schools have already cut sodium, calories and fat and offer fruits, vegetables, whole grains and milk,” she said.
The proposed rule to tighten standards from the 2012 rule was published a year ago and garnered 74,000 comments. FNS sent the final rule to the Office of Management and Budget for review in February.
The only group to meet so far with OMB is the International Dairy Foods Association. Matt Herrick, IDFA's senior vice president for public affairs and communications, said he can’t predict what approach FNS will take in the final rule.
“I am confident dairy will maintain its central position on the lunch trays of 30 million students each day. I just don’t see the final USDA rule eliminating or reducing a nutrient-dense food that children enjoy. I expect a rule that incorporates lessons learned from COVID and maintains what is nutritionally important — like milk, cheese, and yogurt — while improving what is working,” Herrick said.
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Herrick noted since IDFA announced its Healthy School Milk Commitment last year, the level of added sugars in milk has fallen to an average of 7.5 grams, and calories to 125 per serving. “Regardless of whether USDA sets a limit on added sugars, all processors who provide flavored milk to schools will be at or below 10g by the start of the 2025 school year,” he said.
School nutrition directors at the Washington conference expressed concern about the proposed standards.
“Everybody has worked so hard just to be compliant with the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act” passed in 2010, said Jeanne Reilly, director of school nutrition at the Windham Raymond Schools in Maine. “Now to have all the work that we've done to really create delicious food that kids will eat in schools, to kind of have that chipped away, it feels really stressful and a little heart-rending, actually.”
Part of her concern is that tougher standards will reduce student participation.
“Coming out of the pandemic, many districts, including my own, shifted to a breakfast-in-the classroom model,” which, along with free school meals throughout the state, has helped school breakfast participation grow “exponentially,” Reilley said in an interview on the sidelines of the conference.
Stacy Dean, USDA“When you are serving breakfast in the classroom, often it's muffins or cereal, milk, things that are easy to grab and go,” she said. The number of breakfast products, in particular, that can comply with the proposed added sugars standard is very limited, she said.
Further sodium reductions could decrease kids’ participation, she said. “The students need to eat the food,” Reilley said. “They do not have salt packets on the serving line. They do not have salt shakers on their tables. We season the food so that it tastes good within the current guidelines. My fear is that children will taste the food and say 'This just doesn't taste good.'”
At a March 7 event at a Washington D.C., elementary school, Stacy Dean, USDA's deputy undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, said, “What we've been hearing from the School Nutrition Association is that we all support healthy kids and we all understand the fundamental connection between nutrition and health.
“What they're asking for is time to make a transition and support, and you see that support right here,” Dean continued, mentioning the efforts by the Washington, D.C., public school system, the nonprofit D.C. Central Kitchen, and local farmers. “If we work together, we're going to get where we need to go,” Dean said.
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