The Agriculture Department has announced updates to school meal nutrition standards for the 2022-23 school year, aimed at making meals healthier while acknowledging the supply-chain difficulties schools expect to face in recovering from the pandemic. "These transitional nutrition standards -- set to be implemented in the next two school years -- are intended to give 'schools time to transition from current, pandemic operations, toward more nutritious meals,' according to USDA. These standards include updates to milk, whole grains and sodium requirements for school meals," Liz Stark reports for CNN.
USDA said in a press release that the nutritional requirements will allow schools to "gradually transition from the extraordinary circumstances caused by the pandemic to normal program operations and meal standards that are consistent with the latest nutrition science."
Here are some of the updated guidelines:
- Schools can offer flavored 1% low-fat milk in addition to other non-fat and low-fat milk options
- At least 80 percent of grains in school meals each week must be rich in whole grains
- Beginning in the 2023-2024 school year, the weekly sodium limit for lunches only will decrease by 10%
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