The U.S. Department of Agriculture has backed off on a requirement that schools serve frozen fruit without added sugar by next school year.
In a memo this week, the agency said schools can serve frozen fruits made with added sugars through the end of the 2013-14 school year, overruling its own decision earlier this year that these items may only be packed in water or fruit juice.
Since 2009, the USDA has been cutting the amount of added sugar in frozen fruit offered to states, but most of the frozen strawberries, peaches, and apricots still offered by the agency contain added sugar.
The switch, the USDA said, is to give states and school districts enough time to use up existing products and to give the frozen food industry enough time to reformulate frozen fruit products.
The regulation took effect this school year, so schools already had a one-year reprieve and now they have two.
