Remember the meals you had in your school cafeteria? I'm reminded of a fried, square fish patty on a white roll, green beans and a cardboard carton of whole chocolate milk. School meals have come a long way since then, and, due to new nutrition requirements, they’re going to go a whole lot further. First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack released on Wednesday the final rule updating nutritional guidelines for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) while they attended a school in Arlington, Virginia. This update is intended to bring meals served into line with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans, specifically by increasing the fruits, vegetables and whole grains, while controlling calories, saturated fat and sodium. Many of the new requirements will go into effect for the 2012-2013 school year, but some breakfast changes will be phased in over the next few school years. Dairy foods have always been a centerpiece of school meals and they will continue to hold this spot under the new rules. However, some new restrictions may reduce the types of dairy products that may be part of a reimbursable meal. Fluid milk must continue to be offered with all meals, but the new rules require that all milk be either low-fat or fat-free and flavored milk can only be fat-free. Yogurt and cheese are still allowed as meat/meat alternates for both lunches and breakfasts, with no specific restrictions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also laid out new restrictions on calories, saturated fat and sodium content of meals. The amounts of these are averaged over a week’s worth of meals, so this will not directly restrict the number of calories or amount of sodium in a specific ingredient or food. However, the general goal of lowering these nutrients in meals will cause school foodservice directors to look for dairy products that are lower in fat, sodium and calories. More information about the new requirements can be found here,  and IDFA’s News Update article on the final rule is here. IDFA staff will continue to review the final rule and analyze its impact on dairy products over the next few weeks. I’ll write more about the specifics of the rule, including sodium reduction and food group requirements, in future blog posts. What do you think about the new nutrition requirements for school meals? What will be the challenges of meeting these new rules?