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There are new lunch regulations for schools as per the Trump administration. They aim to eliminate the strict regulations that existed before and also make changes on calorie labels that are appearing on menus and food items in the stores.
Sonny Perdue, the Agriculture Secretary, recently spoke about delaying a lunch regulation that would require school lunches to be served with lesser sodium. Also, he wishes to give the go-ahead to serving grains that may not be whole-grain to the children. According to Perdue, children today are very opinionated and know what they want to eat and what they don’t. This is a step towards balancing palatability and nutrition in their school meals and also gives the kids the feeling that their wants and needs are being heard and considered.
Perdue said while addressing a crowd in a school in Leesburg, Va., that this was a thought out plan after speaking to numerous school authorities, children and parents. According to him, most of the people who were asked have been trying to change the strict nutrition regulations set out during the former Obama administration. Perdue even followed his meeting at the school by eating a meal in the Catoctin Elementary School cafeteria along with the children.
Many view this as a way to consciously pull back reforms that were set into place by Michelle Obama. Meal program operators who represent the cafeteria in the schools have liked his decision. The School Nutrition Association has been long pushing Congress for this flexibility on regulations. Their CEO Montague Patricia appreciated Perdue’s decision to make meals more liked by children. Patricia also said that this decision would make the task of cooking and providing healthy meals to children more flexible.
As Ken Cook, the president of the Environment-Working Group expresses, children cannot be given what they like, they should not be given salted processed meals in schools, simply because that is what they like. Adults need to step in and regulate the nutrition aspect of the school lunch program for the children.
The CEO of the Alliance of Healthier- Generations, Howell Wechsler, also opposed this decision by saying just because children find school curriculums challenging and tough to comply with no one reduces the standards of academics or teaching. Why should this be done in the case for lunch regulations? Children cannot be expected to know what is good for them and just because they like something it does not mean it is the best thing for them.
The Trump administration is also rolling back another food regulation that was passed during the Obama administration. The federal rule of mentioning the caloric information on food items, on restaurant menus and packed foods, has also been removed and will be effective as of May of next year. This is done because authorities have been complaining about the regulations being tough to comply with and excessively prescriptive.
Tom Price, the current Secretary of Health and Human Services said during a recent statement that the Trump administrations aims at working in public health while keeping the American Consumer in mind. The aim is to make sure they people are happy with the regulations set.
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