The U.S. Department of Agriculture has published revised school meal rules, which will ease heightened nutrition standards championed by former first lady Michelle Obama.
Child-nutrition advocates had said the rules were necessary to curb growing rates of childhood obesity. But some, including industry groups representing school nutrition professionals, said the regulations were costly to follow and students weren’t eating the healthier meals.
The interim final rule would allow schools to serve 1 percent fat flavored milk instead of nonfat, be exempted from whole-grain-rich-food requirements for schools that struggle to find compliant products, and serve meals that fall under current sodium restrictions throughout the 2018-19 school year. Those restrictions were scheduled to be lowered.
