U.S. agriculture officials proposed new nutritional standards on Friday school mealsincluding the first limits on added sugars, with a focus on sweetened foods such as cereals, yoghurt, flavored milk and breakfast biscuits.
The plan, announced by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, also aims to significantly reduce the sodium content in the meals served to the country’s schoolchildren by 2029, while adding flexibility to rules around whole grain foods.
The goal is to improve nutrition and align with U.S. dietary guidelines in the program, which serves breakfast to more than 15 million children and lunch to nearly 30 million children every day, Vilsack said.
“School meals happen to be the most nutritionally nutritious meal of any meal children can eat away from home,” Vilsack said in an interview.
The first limits on added sugars would be required in the 2025-2026 school year, starting with high-sugar foods such as sweetened cereals, yogurt and flavored milk.
For example, under the plan, an 8-ounce container of chocolate milk can’t contain more than 10 grams of sugar. Some popular flavored milks now contain double the amount. The plan also limits sugary cereal desserts like muffins or donuts to no more than twice a week for breakfast.
By fall 2027, added sugar in school meals should be limited to less than 10% of total calories per week for breakfast and lunch.
The proposal would also reduce sodium in school meals by 30% by fall 2029. They would be gradually reduced to align with federal guidelines, which recommend that Americans ages 14 and older limit sodium to about 2,300 milligrams per day, with less for younger children.
For example, levels would drop from an average of about 1,280 milligrams of sodium per lunch for kids in grades 9 through 12 to about 935 milligrams. For comparison, a typical turkey sandwich with mustard and cheese might contain 1,500 milligrams of sodium.
Health experts say that reducing sugar and salt can help reduce the risk of diseases in children, including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and other problems that often persist into adulthood.
The plan, detailed in a 280-page document, drew mixed reactions. Katie Wilson, executive director of the Urban School Food Alliance, said the changes are “necessary to help America’s children lead healthier lives.”
But Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association, a trade group, said school meals are already healthier than they were a decade ago and that tighter regulations are a burden, especially for small and rural school districts.
“School feeding programs are at a tipping point,” she said. “These programs are simply not equipped to meet additional rules.”
Vilsack stressed that plan phases will change over the next six years to give schools and food manufacturers time to adapt to the new standards. He said in a Friday news conference that the USDA will also fund grants of up to $150,000 to help small and rural schools make the changes.
“We hope that many school districts and food providers will accelerate the schedule themselves,” he said.
Courtney Gaine, president of the Sugar Association, said the proposal ignores the “many functional roles” sugar plays in foods beyond sweetness and encourages the use of sugar substitutes, which have not been fully studied in children. Sugar substitutes are allowed under the new standards, Vilsack said.
As part of the plan, agriculture officials are asking for feedback on a proposal that would still require 80% of all grains offered in a week to be whole grains. But it would allow schools to serve non-whole grain foods like white flour tortillas one day a week to vary their menus.
Another option suggests serving unflavored fat-free and low-fat milk for the youngest children, and saving chocolate and other flavored milk for high school kids.
A 60-day public comment period on the plan begins February 7.
Shiriki Kumanyika, a community health expert at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health, said if done right, some of the changes will be hard for kids to notice: “You’ll see things that they love to eat, but these foods will be healthier,” she said.
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This story has been corrected to correct the spelling of the President of the Sugar Association. It’s Courtney Gaine, not Courtney Gaines.
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AP video journalist Shelby Lum and AP science writer Maddie Burakoff contributed to this report.
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