USDA Announces Guidelines for Snacks Sold in Schools

From the Center for Science in the Public Interest:

Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture finalized the national school nutrition standards for snacks sold through vending machines, a la carte lines, and school stores. Combined with the improvements in school lunches, all foods and beverages sold in schools will need to meet healthy nutrition standards starting in the 2014-2015 school year.

A few highlights of these historic new guidelines:

• Sugar drinks with more than 40 calories per 8 ounces will no longer be sold in school vending machines. (Full-calorie soda is also gone for good.)
• The new standards will better address obesity and dietary problems—with sensible limits on calories, saturated and trans fats, salt, and sugars.
• After a phase-in period, companies won't be able to just fortify snacks with cheap nutrients to qualify them as healthy; all school foods will have to contain actual healthy food―some fruit, vegetables, whole grains, or another healthy food component.

CSPI has worked to improve the healthfulness of snacks in schools for over a decade, and we couldn’t have achieved this without you. The hundreds of thousands of letters USDA received in support of healthy school meals and school snacks were instrumental in its decision to implement these strong new standards that will protect the health of America’s children.

With gratitude,

Margo G. Wootan
Director of Nutrition Policy
Center for Science in the Public Interest