Enacted in 2010, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) set rigid nutrition standards for schools and paved the way for the subsequent implementation of school meal rules that many in the industry argue have limited the flexibility of school foodservice providers, led to increased food waste in school cafeterias, and resulted in declining participation in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs.  USDA’s Final Rule: Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, for example, imposes stringent sodium limits and whole grain and dairy requirements. Recently, there have been increasing calls to scale back on these requirements.  Some school meal program operators have experienced challenges with the whole grain-rich requirement and the sodium limits.

To address these challenges, USDA took administrative steps, such as allowing enriched pasta exemptions for SYs 2014-2015 and 2015-2016, to provide flexibilities and ease the transition to the updated standards. Congress recognized the challenges as well, and, through Section 751 of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 ( L. 113-235), expanded the pasta flexibility to include other grain products.

Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published an interim final ruletitled the “School Meal Flexibility Rule” which aims to provide greater flexibility in nutrition requirements for school meal programs in order to make food choices both healthful and appealing to students (82 FR 56703). The rule provides school meal plan operators the option to provide flavored, low-fat (1 percent) milk and grants exemptions in 2018-19 for schools that experience challenges obtaining whole grain-rich products acceptable to students. It also affords schools and industry additional time to reduce sodium levels in school meals, effectively permitting schools that meet the current Sodium Target 1 limit to be considered compliant for 2018-2019 instead of being required to further restrict sodium levels.

USDA Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said the rule reflects USDA’s commitment – articulated in a May 2017 proclamation – to work with program operators, school nutrition professionals, industry, and other stakeholders to develop forward-thinking strategies to ensure school nutrition standards are both healthful and practical.

The advancement of this interim final rule makes clear that USDA is serious about moving towards increased flexibility when it comes to school meal program nutrition requirements, with the complete rolling back of the previous administration’s school nutrition requirements a possibility.