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New Nutrition Standards for School Snacks

The OrganWise Guys know a thing or two about snacking. Although tasty and nutritious breakfasts and lunches are provided in schools through the National School Breakfast and National School Lunch programs, controversy around snacks in schools exists. A proposed rule by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) would create new nutrition standards for school snacks. These new standards would increase student access to healthier snack foods throughout the day and would also limit the sale of less healthy foods and beverages in vending machines, snack carts, etc. Read below for the specific changes that would happen if these new standards were passed.

The proposed rule would do the following to school snacks:OWG_Blog_Art_3-15-12

  1. Promote snack foods with whole grains, reduced-fat dairy, fruits, veggies or protein as the main ingredient.
  2. Ensure that school snack foods have lower amounts of fat, sugar and sodium, and that there are more naturally occurring nutrients in these foods.
  3. For beverages, portion size and caffeine content would be age specific.
  4. Allow schools to have food fundraisers during the school day for foods that meet certain nutrition requirements.
  5. Ensure that the standards only apply to snack food sold during the school day.
  6. Create a minimum standard for schools to abide by, so that they may maintain authority to set stronger standards and maintain their own policies.

What are your thoughts on these potential new standards?

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