School foods face federal overhaul - Spokesman.com - June 28, 2013

WASHINGTON ? Kids, your days of blowing off those healthier school lunches and filling up on cookies from the vending machine are numbered. The government is onto?you.

For the first time, the Agriculture Department is telling schools what sorts of snacks they can sell. The new restrictions announced Thursday fill a gap in nutrition rules that allowed many students to load up on fat, sugar and salt despite the existing guidelines for healthy?meals.

?Parents will no longer have to worry that their kids are using their lunch money to buy junk food and junk drinks at school,? said Margo??

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Associated Press photo

A student buys a Pop-Tart in the hallway outside a school cafeteria in Wichita, Kan., in May?2006.
(Full-size photo)

What?s?in

Baked potato?chips

Granola?bars

Cereal?bars

Trail?mix

Dried?fruits

Fruit?cups

Yogurt

Sugarless?gum

Whole grain-rich?muffins

100 percent juice?drinks

Diet soda (high?schools)

Flavored water (high?schools)

Diet sports drinks (high?schools)

Unsweetened or diet iced teas (high?schools)

Baked lower-fat french?fries

Healthier pizzas with whole grain?crust

Lean hamburgers with whole wheat?buns

What?s?out

Candy

Snack?cakes

Most?cookies

Pretzels

High-calorie?sodas

High-calorie sports?drinks

Juice drinks that are not 100 percent?juice

Most ice cream and ice cream?treats

High-fat chips and?snacks

Greasy?pizza

Deep-fried, high-fat?foods

WASHINGTON ? Kids, your days of blowing off those healthier school lunches and filling up on cookies from the vending machine are numbered. The government is onto?you.

For the first time, the Agriculture Department is telling schools what sorts of snacks they can sell. The new restrictions announced Thursday fill a gap in nutrition rules that allowed many students to load up on fat, sugar and salt despite the existing guidelines for healthy?meals.

?Parents will no longer have to worry that their kids are using their lunch money to buy junk food and junk drinks at school,? said Margo Wootan, a nutrition lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest who pushed for the new?rules.

That doesn?t mean schools will be limited to doling out broccoli and brussels?sprouts.

Snacks that still make the grade include granola bars, low-fat tortilla chips, fruit cups and 100 percent fruit juice. And high school students can buy diet versions of soda, sports drinks and iced?tea.

But say goodbye to some beloved school standbys, such as doughy pretzels, chocolate chip cookies and those little ice cream cups with their own spoons. Some may survive in low-fat or whole wheat versions. The idea is to weed out junk food and replace it with something with nutritional?merit.

The bottom line, Wootan said: ?There has to be some food in the?food.?

The federal snack rules don?t take effect until the 2014-15 school year, but there?s nothing to stop schools from making changes?earlier.

Some students won?t notice much difference. Many schools already are working to improve their offerings. Thirty-nine states have some sort of snack food policy in?place.

Rachel Snyder, 17, said earlier this year her school in Washington, Ill., stripped its vending machines of sweets. She misses the pretzel-filled?M&M?s.

?If I want a sugary snack every now and then,? Snyder said, ?I should be able to buy?it.?

The federal rules put calorie, fat, sugar and sodium limits on almost everything sold during the day at 100,000 schools ? expanding on the previous rules for meals. The Agriculture Department sets nutritional standards for schools that receive federal funds to help pay for lunches, and that covers nearly every public school and about half of private?ones.

One oasis of sweetness and fat will remain: Anything students bring from home, from bagged lunches to birthday cupcakes, is exempt from the?rules.

The Agriculture Department was required to draw up the rules under a law passed by Congress in 2010, championed by first lady Michelle Obama, as part of the government?s effort to combat childhood?obesity.

Nutritional guidelines for subsidized lunches were revised last year and put in place last?fall.

Last year?s rules making main lunch fare more nutritious faced criticism from some conservatives, including some Republicans in Congress, who said the government shouldn?t be telling kids what to eat. Mindful of that backlash, the Agriculture Department left one of the more controversial parts of the rule, the regulation of in-school fundraisers like bake sales, up to the?states.

The rules have the potential to transform what many children eat at?school.

In addition to meals already subject to nutrition standards, most lunchrooms also have ?a la carte? lines that sell other foods ? often greasy foods like mozzarella sticks and nachos. That gives students a way to circumvent the healthy lunches. Under the rules, those lines could offer healthier pizzas, low-fat hamburgers, fruit cups or yogurt and similar?fare.

One of the biggest changes will be a near-ban on high-calorie sports drinks. Many beverage companies added sports drinks to school vending machines after sodas were pulled in response to criticism from the public health?community.

The rule would only allow sales in high schools of sodas and sports drinks that contain 60 calories or less in a 12-ounce serving, banning the highest-calorie versions of those?beverages.

Low-calorie sports drinks ? Gatorade?s G2, for example ? and diet drinks will be allowed in high?school.

Elementary and middle schools will be allowed to sell only water, carbonated water, 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice, and low-fat and fat-free milk, including nonfat flavored?milks.

The food industry has been onboard with many of the changes, and several companies worked with Congress on the child nutrition law three years?ago.

? Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/jun/28/school-foods-face-federal-overhaul/

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