USDA Maintains School Meals Flexibilities for 1% Flavored Milk and Sodium

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will publish a final rule on Monday that will allow school meals operators participating in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program to continue serving low-fat flavored milk to students through the 2023-2024 school year without needing to secure a waiver. IDFA is pleased with the rule, as reflected in my public statement from today, and we will continue to work with the Department and Congress to expand healthy, nutritious dairy offerings at school. Ensuring dairy’s place within federal nutrition programs remains a key part of IDFA advocacy and we thank our members for your collaboration and engagement on the issue.

The rule will delay reduced sodium targets for schools and eliminate the immediate threat of an overly stringent “Final Target” that would effectively remove cheese from the menu. The Target 1 levels for sodium in school breakfast will remain in place, while Target 1 levels for school lunch will remain for School Year 2022-23 and a new Target 1A, reflecting a 10% reduction from Target 1, will be required for school lunches in School Year 2023-24. The rule is here.

This USDA final rule will be critical to ensuring students continue to have access to nutrient-dense dairy products, in particular milk and cheese, and it provides clarity and certainty to school meals professionals and dairy foods makers as they plan ahead amid supply chain challenges.

 

Why Is the Rule Important?

In 2020, the federal Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee report found that a staggering 79 percent of 9- to 13-year-olds are not meeting the recommended intake of dairy foods. Children of all ages are falling short of these recommendations, and they rely on school meals to meet their nutritional needs.

Today’s announcement helps to encourage school meal participation by maintaining a wider variety of milk offerings that kids enjoy. Milk is a major source of calcium, potassium, phosphorus, and vitamin D in the diets of children 2-18 years of age. In fact, about 73 percent of the calcium available in the food supply is provided by milk and milk products. Moreover, it has been proven time and again in schools across the country that when flavored milks are available, kids not only drink more milk—they are more likely to participate in the school meal programs and waste less food, thus truly benefiting from dairy’s important vitamins and nutrients.

Yet for years, schools have been burdened with regulations that hamper their ability to provide children with nutrient-dense dairy products. First, whole milk disappeared; then 2%; and then finally 1% flavored milk, which kids prefer compared to non-fat flavored milk. On top of that, schools have more recently had to plan for overly stringent sodium targets—targets that would effectively

remove cheese from the menu since sodium is necessary to ensure food safety. There are multiple hurdles to reducing sodium levels in many types of cheese, including technological feasibility, efficacy of salt substitutes and regulatory requirements. While some reductions may be technically feasible, the final product may not be acceptable due to flavor, which is counterproductive to the mission to ensure kids are consuming these nutritious dairy products.

What’s Next

The rule is limited in that it provides certainty until School Year 2024-2025, when USDA intends to have new permanent meal patterns. USDA nutrition officials will brief IDFA today and we will continue to work with the Department to ensure that nutrient-rich dairy products remain core long-term components of the child nutrition and school meals programs.

If you have questions about the final rule, please contact IDFA subject matter experts Rob Rosado and Michelle Matto.

Thank you,