New rules would limit sugar in school meals for first time

February 3, 2023

U.S. agriculture officials on Friday proposed new nutrition standards for school meals, including the first limits on added sugars, with a focus on sweetened foods such as cereals, yogurt, flavored milk and breakfast pastries…The goal is to improve nutrition and align with U.S. dietary guidelines in the program that serves breakfast to more than 15 million children and lunch to nearly 30 million children every day, Vilsack said…

Courtney Gaine, president of the Sugar Association, said the proposal ignores the “many functional roles” sugar plays in food beyond sweetness and encourages the use of sugar substitutes, which have not been fully studied in children. Sugar substitutes are allowed under the new standards, Vilsack said.

Read the full article here: https://apnews.com/article/new-school-meal-nutrition-standards-30963aeb9f56aae0ee743c26f1117f19

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A new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showing rising obesity rates over the last decade and recent data from the Economic Research Service (E.R.S.) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture showing declining sweetener consumption during the same period has provided fodder for the Sugar Association to question whether sugar should be the primary target in the fight against obesity.

Old-Fashioned Nutritive Sweeteners Are On The Rise

August 22, 2022

“Sugar is a versatile and irreplaceable functional ingredient in food,” says Courtney Gaine, president and CEO of the Sugar Assn. “It’s the gold standard for taste and is a familiar ingredient that has been used for generations—often for reasons that have little to do with its sweet flavor. These functional properties range from balancing acidity, browning or adding bulk to preventing spoilage through its moisture retention properties.”