One of the goals of the new rules for school meals is to reduce the levels of some nutrients in breakfasts and lunches served in schools. New limits on saturated fat and sodium, along with new calorie ranges, are intended to lower children’s intake of these with a long-term goal of reducing obesity and chronic disease. I laid out the basics of the final rule on school meals in a blog post, "Lunch Date with Nutrition," right after the final rule  was released. This post will review the nutrient restrictions, and I’ll add another blog post soon, laying out the allowances and requirements for specific dairy products. The final rule, and all of the requirements for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), go into effect for the 2012-2013 school year. Most of the new requirements for the School Breakfast Program (SBP), including new nutrient limits, will be phased in over a number of years. Each of these limits will be measured based on an average of a week’s worth of menus. There are no limitations on the content of these nutrients in specific dairy foods, other than the requirement that fluid milk be low-fat or fat-free. The weekly average means that one meal can be slightly over the per-meal limit and still be in compliance with the regulations as long as other meals are slightly below the limit, allowing the week's meals to meet the overall average. Saturated Fat Meals, on average, must derive less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat. This limit is the same as the level currently required by the NSLP and SBP. The final rule specifically identified the allowance of only fat-free and low-fat milk as one important method for lowering the saturated fat content of school meals. In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will provide guidance to schools to assist with choices to lower saturated fat content of meals. Sodium The final rule sets out a plan for implementing much lower sodium levels in both breakfasts and lunches. The targets vary based on the type of meal and age of students, but on average, the final reduction in sodium for school lunches could be as much as 50 percent. Since kids’ tastes are sensitive to salt, and sodium can be hard to reformulate from foods, the significant reduction of sodium is scheduled to take place in three stages over 10 years. The first target, due in the 2014-2015 school year, will require schools to lower sodium content in lunches by 5percent to 10 percent. The second target is due in the 2017-2018 school year, which is one year later than originally proposed; it would lower sodium in school lunch by 15 percent to 30 percent. The final target, required by the 2022-2023 school year, would lower sodium content by 25 percent to 50 percent compared to baseline sodium content. Calories The school meal programs were originally designed to prevent childhood hunger and malnutrition, so from the very beginning, the programs had minimum levels of calories that meals were required to provide. However, since obesity is currently the major public health concern related to children, USDA has placed limits on the number of calories that can be provided through school breakfasts and lunches. These ranges vary based upon the meal type, as well as the age group of the children attending the school. Effect on Dairy Since school foodservice directors will need to meet these new limits, most of which are significantly lower than previously required for school meals, they will be looking for foods and beverages with lower saturated fat, sodium and calorie content. They may choose to purchase lower-sodium or lower-fat versions of some dairy foods or use smaller amounts of dairy products to meet the new mandates. This could cause manufacturers of school entrees, such as pizza, to search out ingredients lower in these nutrients or to use less of the ingredients that contain these nutrients. What changes are you making to products you plan to sell to schools for use in meals? What are you hearing from your school customers about orders for next year?