School Junk Food Rules: What's In & What's Out

The government for the first time is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are healthful. The rule announced Thursday will apply to "a la carte" lines in school cafeterias, vending machines, snack bars and any other food sold regularly on campus.

The Associated Press

Jun 28, 2013

(AP) — The government for the first time is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are healthful. The rule announced Thursday will apply to "a la carte" lines in school cafeterias, vending machines, snack bars and any other food sold regularly on campus. It won't apply to fundraisers, after-school concession stands, class parties or foods brought from home.

In this May 3, 2006 file photo, a student purchases a brown sugar Pop-Tart from a vending machine in the hallway outside the school cafeteria, in Wichita, Kan. High-calorie sports drinks and candy bars will be removed from school vending machines and cafeteria lines as soon as next year, replaced with diet drinks, granola bars and other healthier items the Agriculture Department said Thursday, June 27, 2013. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Mike Hutmacher, File)

A separate set of rules already applies to meals in the main lunch line.

Under the new rules, most food sold in school will now be subject to fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits. Snack foods will have to be less than 200 calories and have some nutritional value instead of being mostly empty calories.

Some examples of snacks likely to miss or make the requirements:

Before the New Standards After the New Standards

Snack

	Chocolate sandwich cookies	Light Popcorn
Total Calories	286	161
Empty Calories	182	17

Snack

	Chocolate bar	Granola bar
Total calories	235	95
Empty calories	112	32

Snack

	Regular cola	Flavored water
Total calories	136	0
Empty calories	126	0

Other examples of what's in and what's out under the new guidelines:

What's out	What's in
Candy	Baked potato chips
Snack cakes	Trail Mix
Most cookies	Dried Fruits
Most pretzels	Fruit cups
Most ice cream and ice cream treats	Yogurt
Deep-fried, high-fat foods	Baked lower-fat french fries
Greasy pizza	Healthier pizzas with whole grain crust
Many juice drinks	100 percent juice drinks
High-calorie sodas	Diet soda (high schools)
High-calorie sports drinks	Diet sports drinks (high schools)