Milk Stays on School Lunch Guidelines List

USDA recently released their dietary guidelines for school lunches and milk made the cut but with some changes, National Milk Producers Federation, Senior Vice President of Member Services and Governance, Chris Galan.

“In the interest of reducing the obesity level, particularly among children, which is certainly a laudable goal. There were a lot of changes made something like 12-15 years ago in the school lunch program. And initially, they wanted to kick out all flavored milks, including chocolate milk, but we know that this was a case where you if you throw the baby out with the bathwater, it's bad news. If you remove flavored milk like chocolate from the schools, that means milk consumption slower. It means that overall nutrition and all the key nutrients and vitamins that 13 nutrients and vitamins that no provides. A lot of times those don't get consumed if kids don't have access to at least low fat flavored milk.”

The other regulation included the reduction of sodium levels affecting cheese.

“Because cheese is a key ingredient in a lot of foods that are shared in that school. And sodium is an important component of making cheese. And so there are some reductions in sodium levels overall, but it should not require any drastic reduction or reformulation of the cheese served in Schools.

National Milk Producers Federation, Senior Vice President of member services and governance Chris Galen.