The U.S. Agriculture Department last week announced new nutrition guidelines for school meals, requiring schools to slash sugar and sodium levels by the 2025-26 school year.
These changes are an effort to align school lunches with federal dietary standards.
“You should be able to make kids be very happy with reduced sodium, reduced sugar,” Corby Kummer told Boston Public Radio on Tuesday, adding that providing healthier options to children is the best way to create new nutrition habits.
Kummer is a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
The new rules limit the amounts of added sugars, especially in breakfast items. Cereal must have less than six grams of added sugars; yogurt, no more than 12 grams. Current meal program rules have no limits on added sugars
By the 2027-28 school year, schools will have to implement a 15% sodium reduction for lunch and a 10% reduction for breakfast from current sodium limits, although Kummer still said these changes were a “lost opportunity” to make changes.
The USDA did not make changes to requirements for milk and whole grains.
The New York Times reported that school lunch administrators worry the new guidelines will result in less tasty food that kids won’t want to eat, leading to increased waste.
But some food companies have already altered their recipes to meet previous nutrition guidelines. Kellogg's and other cereal companies make special boxes of cereal for schools that have less sugar than the ones in grocery stores.
While beneficial for kids in school, Kummer warned about creating brand recognition for a food that has a different nutrition profile in the grocery store.
“Parents think they're getting the same product, and then kids have the high octane full-sugar or full-sodium Lunchable or Cocoa Puffs at home,” Kummer said.
“They will probably leave a lot of the Cocoa Puffs at school because they're not as sweet,” he said, acknowledging the concerns of those critical of the new guidelines.
