NEW Child & Adult Care Food Program Meal Patterns

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The school lunch program has made several revisions that will go into affect starting October 1, 2017. These new rules will increase the amount of fruits and vegetables provided in meals. The meals will also incorporate more whole grains and they will contain less added sugars and saturated fats.

Fruits and vegetables were considered only one component of a meal. With the new regulations they will separate into their own categories. This will increase the about of fruits and vegetables served at meals because students will be able to have a fruit and vegetable with their meals. 100% fruit juice does count as a fruit component however it is also going to be limited to one time per day. In regards to whole grains it is going to be required that at least one serving of grains per day must be a whole grain product. Additionally, Grain-based deserts including whole grain toaster pastries, donuts, cereal bars, breakfast bars, granola bars, cookies, desert pies, and sweet rolls will not count towards the whole grain component. This will decrease the amount of sugar that students will receive in their meals. Sugar content is also going to be decreased in yogurt products and breakfast cereals. Yogurt cannot contain more than 23 grams of sugar per six ounce serving and no more than 15.3 grams per four ounce serving. Breakfast cereals must contain no more than 6 grams of sugar per dry ounce. Schools are not allowed to use frying as a cooking method when preparing foods on-site. This will aid with decreasing the amount of saturated fats in foods.

The new guidelines will enable children and adults to receive more nutrient dense meals that will keep them fuller longer. Cutting out excess sugar and saturated fats will also decrease their risk of developing chronic diseases later in life. It is essential that dietitians who work as food service directors keep up to day on the new regulations so that they can help to provide the quality meals to their organizations.


-KM

United States Department of Agriculture. (2016, April 22). NEW Child and Adult Care Food Program Meal Patterns . Retrieved from https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/cacfp/CACFP_childadultmealstandards.pdf

Comments

  1. ksu internsOctober 6, 2017 at 4:02 PM

    KM -
    This was definitely an interesting topic to read especially because the new policy was recently enforced. I am glad you wrote about this to inform everyone of the new policy especially for students going into their school food service rotation. I am glad they made a new guideline to not allow frying as a cooking method. This will hopefully decrease the amount of saturated fat and give them a chance to try new cooking techniques that involves less fat and oil. I'm glad they also now are considering fruit and vegetables as two separate categories. I believe this should have been changed long ago as well. It will be interesting to see the difference in children's nutrient intake as well as students and staff opinions on the new change over time. Great blog.
    -LS

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