New USDA and FDA Rules
How Will They Impact Our Schools? by F&EG -8/2001-
Last year, the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) changed the rule on what is allowable on school lunch menus. And, new rules of what can be called “Organic” are initiated. Also, the FDA has implemented rules to ward off the introduction of “mad cow disease,” and other potential problems. If you want to be aware of how these issues could affect our schools, read on.
In January of this year, the USDA released its study on the prevalence and effects of certain competitive foods on the nation’s school children. The report, titled “Foods Sold in Competition with USDA School Meal Programs: A Report to Congress,” places competitive foods into two categories: foods of minimal nutritional value (FMNV) and all other foods offered for sale in schools.
The report states that while the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program contribute to better nutrition and healthier eating habits in participating students, the presence of competitive foods undermines these benefits. Competitive foods: * Have diet-related health risks,
* May stigmatize participation in school meal programs and affect its viability * Convey a mixed message to students.
85% of Parents Want Veggie Burgers On Lunch Menus
According to a survey of about 500 parents at the National PTA convention held in Chicago last June, 85% of parents would like to see veggie burgers served on the school lunch menu at least once a week. The survey was conducted by staff members of Everybody’s Fundraising & Edutainment Guide.
Additionally, 53% of parents said they would be willing to pay an average of 71 cents more for the veggie burger meal. 63% of respondents said they think soy products should also be subsidized if beef and dairy products are.
58% said they were aware of benefits associated with eating soy foods, and 59% said they have tried veggie burgers. Of those who tried them, 70% tried the Gardenburger brand, 30% tried Morningstar Farms brand, 18% tried Boca Burgers, 15% tried Eden Foods, 4.5% tried Yves Veggie cuisine and 11% tried other brands.
6.7% of respondents indicated there were one or more vegetarians in their households. The survey was conducted as a follow-up to an article and news item regarding the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) rule issued last year to allow school cafeterias to substitute 100% non-meat sources of protein in kids diets.
The new rule allows schools to offer additional non-meat items for those children who have cultural, ethical or religious preferences. According to sources at the USDA, as long as the alternate protein product meets the protein requirement, the school district will be credited for reimbursement on a per meal basis. Manufacturers of veggie burgers and other ‘alternate protein products’ can contact the Child Nutrition Labeling program at the USDA by calling 703-305-2590 for more information on qualifying their products.
Kellogg Company submitted three of its Morningstar Farms brand veggie burgers for this program. They include their Garden Veggie Patties and Breakfast Patty. To encourage school food service directors to try these veggie burgers on the school lunch menu, Kellogg is offering Tye Dye Tshirts, book covers and posters promoting the Morningstar Farms brand.
For the past year, the Berkeley School District in California has been serving gourmet vegetarian burritos, veggie pocket sandwiches, and vegetarian lasagna made by Amy’s Kitchen, one of the nation’s largest producers of vegetarian meals, according to Amy’s owner Andy Berliner. The meals are covered by a federal grant for organic food.
New USDA Organic Standards
Expected To Open More Markets
The USDA has released the final national standards for the production, handling and processing of organically grown foods. The new organic standard defines the term “organic” and details the methods, practices and substances that can be used in producing and handling organic crops, livestock, and processed products. It establishes clear organic labeling criteria, and specifically prohibits the use of genetic engineering methods, ionizing radiation and sewage sludge for fertilization.
The standard requires that all agricultural products labeled organic must originate from farms or handling operations certified by a state or USDA accredited agency. Farms and handling operations that sell less than $5,000 worth of product per year are exempt from the certification.
The new organic labeling on products will begin this summer, with full implementation expected by mid-2002.
According to Arran Stephens, Nature’s Path Foods’ Founder and President, national organic standards will contribute to the growth of family farms, boost the U.S. economy and contribute to a safer environment worldwide.
“We applaud organizations such as the Organic Trade Association who work diligently to keep all forms of GMOs out of organic production. Nature’s Path supports organic family farmers, processors, distributors, retailers and consumers-to fulfill our more than three decades-long founding mandate: Leave the Earth better than you found it.”
The regulations are posted on the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service’s web site (www.ams.usda.gov/nop)
Eden ~ Good Food Since 1968
In the late 1960s, Eden traveled the back roads through the rolling farmland of south central Michigan, asking farmers if they were willing to grow food without petrochemical pesticides or fertilizers. When Eden offered these farmers a fair and premium price for their future organic crops, some were willing to try.
Eden was founded on the principles of macrobiotics, which show that peace on earth can be achieved by returning to a more peaceful way of growing, handling, and enjoying food, a way that nurtures Earth’s ecosystems. Today, more than thirty years later, this remains Eden’s dream and mission.
Over the years, Eden has nurtured relationships with organic growers and traditional food makers throughout the world. Today it is one of a few remaining independent pioneer natural food companies, with a dedicated network of family farms and suppliers. Eden works with more than 350 farms and orchards, organically growing grains, beans, soybeans, apples, tart cherries, tomatoes, cabbages, chilies, mustard, and more.
“Our greatest satisfaction,” says Eden President Michael Potter, “has been the creation of over 30,000 acres of organic soil. All of this soil teems with life, provides good food for us, and will continue to provide good food for future generations.”
Eden’s processing facilities, warehouses, production lines, mills, storage elevators, and even their truck trailers are certified organic. In today’s tumultuous multi-billion dollar ‘organic industry,’ Eden has remained independent and true to its founding principles and goals.
Over the past few years Eden has observed parents, educators, and children seeking healthier options for their school lunch programs, including vegetable-based sustenance. Eden reminds us to choose wisely.
Edensoy®, Edensoy Extra, and Edenblend® are made according to Eden’s standards as reflected in their brand statement which means: No irradiation, no preservatives, no chemical additives, no food colorings, no refined sugars, no genetically engineered ingredients – the safest, most nutritious, certified organically grown food offered. For more information about Eden Foods, please call 800 248-0320, or visit www.edenfoods.com
Coke VS Pepsi:
Will Students Have a Choice?
Early this year the USDA issued a new report on how schools may be affected by soda companies’ contracts with schools.
Charles County’s schools in Maryland, recently signed a 10-year, $6 million pouring rights contract with Coca-Cola. The contract gives Coke exclusive rights to provide soft drinks and juices at the school and to place vending machines in the schools.
Lawmakers in Maryland want to limit schools from entering into exclusive agreements with soft drink companies — such as Charles County’s contract.
Senate Bill 435, sponsored by Sen. Paul G. Pinsky, would ban pouring rights contracts between schools and soft drink companies. He is chief sponsor of a proposal, that would require local school boards to develop policies to ban exclusive agreements with soft drink companies and others who sell in vending machines, and prohibit advertising on buses.
It would also ban selling foods of minimal nutritional value in schools prior to the end of the school day, and eliminate some commercial practices, including providing student information to marketers.
This bill has run into harsh criticism from some educators, who say the proposal could cost them money needed to help students. And it is opposed by vending machine operators, soft drink manufacturers and the nationwide educational television programmer Channel One, which includes commercials in its daily newscast for schools, including 90 in Maryland.
Other companies, including the telecommunications company Verizon and Safeway grocery stores, say the measure would prevent them from participating in worthwhile programs in which they donate money and services to schools.
Charles County school officials said their agreement with Coke has generated enough money to cancel the $50 fee once charged students to participate on sports teams and to eliminate fees for culinary and cosmetology classes.
Eastern Technical High School in Baltimore has signed a five-year, $50,000 agreement with Coke that is paying for drama productions, sports awards and other activities whose costs would have been borne by students, said Principal Robert J. Kemmery. Pinsky said math textbooks published by McGraw-Hill have used M&M candies in their word problems.
He also produced a contract between Montgomery Blair High School and Pepsi-Cola, which showed the school received a one-time payment of $100,000 and annual payments of $55,000 for allowing only Pepsi to be sold in the school.
Current state policy calls for vending machines to be turned off during the school day, but the contract states that “if the Board of Education actively enforces the policy in which vending machines are turned off during the school day,” the $55,000 payment will be drastically reduced.
American School Food Service Association (ASFSA) President Marilyn Hurt fired off a response to Sean McBride, spokesperson for the National Soft Drink Association, regarding a comment attributed to him in an AP article on the USDA report on competitive foods.
In the article, McBride is quoted as saying, “The food is lousy, it takes too long to get through the line. This is an attempt to point the blame at anybody but who’s responsible.”
Hurt took issue with the statement as well as the need for trying to deflect attention from the question of what’s available for purchase on campuses and the impact on children’s health. In the letter Hurt asks, “Why would you not be quoted making an argument supporting your position and business interests without denigrating a program that is making positive contributions to the health and well-being of America’s children?”
Schools say the revenues from pouring rights contracts help cover the costs of school programs and can reduce fees charged to students. Supporters of the bill think students should have choices beyond a single brand and should not be made a captive audience to marketing campaigns. (go to asfsa.org for recent coverage of competitive foods policy and soda contracts)
Alert To Schools: Less Beef to Be Available on Commodities List Sources at the USDA informed us that an alert has been issued to school food service directors indicating there will be less federally subsidized beef available the National School Lunch Program. “We are trying to make beef safer,” said an anonymous source at the USDA, “and not as many processors are willing to comply with the more stringent standards of safety that we put into place.”
In a letter to ASFSA President Marilyn Hurt, Shirley Watkins, USDA Under Secretary of Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, and Michael Dunn, Under Secretary of Marketing and Regulatory Programs explained why the Department has fallen behind in ground beef purchasing for the schools.
According to Watkins and Dunn, beef purchasing has been slowed due to stricter food safety standards imposed this year by USDA. These new requirements led to changes in manufacturing processes and increased business risk for USDA beef suppliers. “Not unexpectedly, there was some initial hesitancy in the bidding for 2001 ground beef contracts. Purchasing did get off to a slow start,” the letter explained.
The stricter food safety standards include a requirement that beef for grinding can only come from slaughter plants that employ either a pathogen intervention or anti-microbial process and mandatory model manufacturing practices for product handling and equipment sanitation at beef grinding facilities.
The USDA also imposed microbial testing for end product, including zero tolerance standards for salmonella and E. coli.
One Quarter of Feed Makers Noncompliant With ‘Mad Cow Disease’ Rules
The US Food and Drug Administration said that about one quarter of the nation’s rendering plants and feed mills are not complying with regulations issued to prevent the introduction and spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in the United States. It said that government inspections since 1998 have shown that, among other shortcomings, many rendering plants do not have systems in place to prevent “commingling” of rendered protein from ruminants with that from other animals. Rendering plants send these materials to feed mills.
In August 1997, FDA regulations began prohibiting the feeding of the mammal protein to ruminant animals in most circumstances. The practice of feeding ground-up cow and sheep carcasses to cows is believed to have triggered the spread of “mad cow disease” among cattle in the UK.
The regulations require feed manufacturers and companies that render cattle or sheep to label products with a mandated caution statement, and to have in place a system to prevent commingling of other rendered material. The regulation also requires record keeping of where products came from and where they were distributed.
“Compliance with this rule is absolutely critical,” Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Centers for Veterinary Medicine, told Reuters Health. “We expect 100% compliance, that’s our goal,” Dr. Sundlof said, adding that FDA officials estimated that 25% of firms would be noncompliant on initial inspection. Compliance rates are “much higher” on second inspections, Dr. Sundlof said, but he did not have the exact figures.
Richard Sellers, vice president for feed control and nutrition for the American Feed Industry Association, told Reuters Health that most of the noncompliance is due to “ignorance” of the regulation.
“This is a complicated rule.” He said that lack of uniformity of inspections could be one reason for compliance problems.
FDA Says Texas Cattle
Ate Banned Feed
Reuters Health reported on Jan 31 of this year, that about 1200 Texas cattle were given feed containing ground-up meat and bones from other cattle, a violation of federal rules designed to keep BSE out of the American food supply. The FDA said, however, that the chances that the cattle contracted BSE are “exceedingly low.” According to the FDA, Purina Mills, which owns the feed mill, will buy all the animals. The cattle cannot be used in any way that will allow them into the human food chain, but the company is not obligated to destroy the animals, an FDA spokeswoman told Reuters Health. No cases of BSE have been found in the US, but mad cow disease became an epidemic in the United Kingdom after the first case was found there in 1986.
Vegetarianism on the Rise
Among School Children
With all the reports of “tainted” beef and chicken making headlines, it’s no wonder that more kids are going “veggie” and school food service is stepping in. A recent article in Time magazine concurred with EF&E Guides’ report last year, that students ages eight to twelve are opting for vegetarianism at twice the rate of adults. This small but rapidly expanding movement is making an impact on school food service.
Donna Wittrock, ASFSA member and executive director of food and nutrition services for the Denver public schools reports that due to the demand elementary schools are offering vegetarian dishes for the first time this year. She also states that it’s not more vegetables that the students want — just NO meat.
To learn more about being a vegetarian editors at Time suggest the following resources for both parents and children: OK, So Now You’re a Vegetarian by Lauren Butts (Broadway Books) with tasty, quick, easy dishes, including eggs and veggies in a pita, smoothies, chili, burgers and other “things teens like to eat.”
Vegetables Rock! A Complete Guide for Teen Vegetarians by Stephanie Pierson (Bantam) An invaluable guide with recipes, resources and concise breakdowns on key nutrients and the foods in which they’re found.
A Teen’s Guide to Going Vegetarian by Judy Krizmanic (Puffin) Some nutritional information, with a focus on practical issues like handling social gatherings, carnivorous relatives and school cafeterias.
