School meals 101 | Food Business News

KANSAS CITY — School meal and snack programs ensure students from kindergarten through 12th grade are served nourishing foods that support lifelong healthy eating patterns. In the United States, these programs rely on food and beverage manufacturers to allow them to meet the nutritional requirements set forth by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and at the same time, ensure they are affordable, simple to serve and delicious to eat. This is no easy feat, especially with nutritional requirements evolving and many unknowns still out there.

“Every day, school meal programs are juggling financial, staffing and equipment challenges while trying to meet strict federal nutrition standards and the taste preferences of their students,” said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association (SNA). “In addition to following whole grain requirements, they must also meet limits on calories, sodium and now added sugar.”

Since July 2025, US schools have had to adhere to limits on added sugars in cereal, milk and yogurt. Starting in July 2027, they will have to ensure that less than 10% of calories in meals comes from added sugar. New sodium reductions will also take effect at that time.

“With many programs struggling to keep their kitchens fully staffed, schools rely on their K-12 industry partners to offer a variety of menu options that meet these federal standards,” Pratt-Heavner said. “This year, schools will be seeking new whole grain breakfast options that are lower in sugar and sodium, including packaged options that are ideal for grab-and-go or breakfast in the classroom programs. Several states have also passed legislation restricting artificial dyes and additives in school foods, so schools are also looking for products that don’t contain ingredients of concern.”

Addressing the unknowns

The USDA will soon release proposed regulations to align current school nutrition standards with the recently updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). It’s a development school lunch program operators are keeping an eye on.

“The new DGAs put an increased emphasis on protein, which could translate to a daily meat or meat alternate requirement for school breakfast,” Pratt-Heavner said. “We’ll have to see how USDA proposes to change the breakfast meal pattern and if they modify breakfast grain requirements.”

Moreover, the USDA may choose to further restrict added sugar limits, establish limits on highly processed foods in schools or restrict ingredients of concern, she said. USDA has also indicated changes are being considered in the Smart Snacks in Schools rules.

Another unknown for bakers surfaced on July 14 when USDA posted an online pledge asking states to engage in “making school meals healthier,” which included a call for 100% whole grain items.

“This pledge was not accompanied with more specific details, so it’s unclear how state-level school foodservice leaders may be considering it,” said Tricia Psota, partner, Nutrition In Demand, a strategic consulting group focused on science-based nutrition. “Currently, most grains offered with a school meal are required to be whole grain-rich, which means that items, such as bread for a sandwich, need to be made with at least 50% whole grains and the remaining grains are required to be enriched.”

If USDA shifts to require that all school foods must be 100% whole grain, school foodservice operators will be challenged with identifying products that meet the requirement, while also addressing budgetary goals and children’s taste preferences. Bakers need to get busy now.

Further restrictions on added sugar and sodium in school meals will be implemented in 2027.

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“Whole grains remain a policy and public health priority, but in practice, schools need products students will actually eat,” said Sasha Chamberlain, owner, Chamberlain Nutrition Consulting, a public health and nutrition policy consultancy.

The most important baked foods to focus on are the high-volume staples schools serve repeatedly. This includes breads and buns, pizza crusts, tortillas and wraps, and breakfast items, such as muffins, waffles and cereals.

“Bakers can help by developing products that are familiar in taste and texture, operationally easy, clearly documented for school meal crediting and cost-conscious,” Chamberlain said. “In this market, the best formulation is the one schools can actually serve successfully at scale.”

Reformulation provides a first start

After great taste, familiarity is often the key to successful better-for-you foods for students. Kids don’t eat Nutrition Facts panels. They eat food. The bakers who succeed will be the ones who deliver products that are both nutritionally compliant and enjoyable to eat.

“If the bun is soft, the muffin is moist and the cookie still tastes like a cookie, you’ve already won half the game,” said Thom King, chief innovations officer, Icon Foods. “The biggest opportunity isn’t reinventing these products. It’s making them better through smarter formulation.”

There is no one-for-one ingredient replacement. Reformulation requires a systems approach.

“Successful reformulation starts with understanding the role each ingredient plays beyond nutrition,” said Kaitlin Prindle, bakery application scientist, ADM. “Sugar contributes sweetness, but it also provides bulk, moisture retention and browning. Salt delivers flavor while also influencing dough performance and shelf life.”

Replacing these ingredients often requires multiple complementary solutions.

“Successful reformulation for school meal applications requires bakers to think beyond simply removing sodium or sugar or swapping in whole grains,” said Erin Surratt, senior director, research, development and applications, Corbion. “These ingredients play important functional roles in baked goods, impacting everything from flavor and texture to dough handling, freshness and microbial stability.”

Taste is paramount. When lowering sodium content, it is often necessary to include flavor modulators. And, because salt is a natural preservative, shelf life extenders may be necessary.

“For sodium reduction, bakers may look at specialty salt technologies, salt-potassium blends, fermentation-based flavor development, yeast-derived flavors, acids, herbs, spices and other flavor-building ingredients,” said Alexander Blissenbach, senior scientist, bakery applications, Cargill. “The goal is to lower sodium while preserving the perception of a balanced, flavorful product.”

Extending the shelf life

Reformulation requires bakers to revisit product quality throughout desired shelf life. It’s all about managing moisture and texture.

“Water activity directly influences microbial stability, softness, shelf life and texture,” King said. “Polyols can help manage free water while preserving moisture and softness, making them useful for extending freshness and improving eating quality. Fibers add another layer of functionality by contributing bulk, water binding, structure and moisture retention.”

Bakers need to design products for freezing, thawing, distribution and cafeteria holding. Communicating handling requirements is important.

“Bakers must also account for the operational realities of school foodservice,” Surratt said. “Products often move through extended distribution networks and may be exposed to varying storage conditions.”

Other challenges include process difficulties related to machinability and dough rheology and ensuring a consistent product that maintains a long enough shelf life. That’s because whole grain baked foods tend to be more susceptible to faster spoilage.

“Bakers can help to improve their shelf life by using natural mold inhibitors to prevent mold and anti-staling enzymes to prevent the onset of staling,” said Sherrill Cropper, new product development lab manager, bakery formulator, Lesaffre. “This can help to reduce product waste and improve the sensory attributes of the final product.”

Natural mold inhibitors can be used to replace chemical-sounding ingredients such as calcium propionate. This helps clean up labels.

“Lesaffre has a variety of natural mold inhibitors based on wheat flour or wheat starch with and without citric acid,” Cropper said. “In addition, enzymes can also be used to help with improving nutrition as certain enzymes can be added to cut down starch into simple sugars, which can help reduce the amount of added sugars needed in the formulation.”

Lesaffre provides a number of anti-staling enzyme options to meet a variety of shelf life needs, including up to 21 days or more. Enzymes are considered a label-friendly option for preventing mold growth and staling.

“These anti-staling improvers can also enhance the texture of baked goods by providing softness, resilience or even moistness to the crumb,” Cropper said. “They are used at a low dosage, which can lower the bowl costs compared to conventional softening emulsifiers.”

Improving nutrition, ensuring consumption

Reformulating to meet nutritional goals and state regulations is mandatory. Some bakers may choose to add extra nutrition to stand out in the market. Others may invest in premium ingredients to ensure consumption.

“Nutrition only creates value when it’s actually eaten,” said Jessica Wellnitz, director of business development for emerging brands, Bay State Milling. “If students bypass foods because of flavor or texture, the intended nutritional benefits are never realized. For bakers, small nutritional improvements, like increasing fiber across high-volume products served every day can have a meaningful impact on children’s diets.”

An emerging opportunity is the use of high-fiber wheat flour, which can be incorporated into whole grain-rich products to significantly increase fiber content while maintaining the familiar sensory characteristics of conventional whole wheat formulations.

“Our non-GMO variety has high levels of naturally occurring resistant starch,” Wellnitz said. “It’s available in refined and whole wheat formats, giving formulators additional flexibility depending on the application.”

Innovations in whole wheat flour are making whole grain baked foods more palatable for children.

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Compared with traditional whole wheat flour, these ingredients can provide more than twice the dietary fiber. That figure jumps to 10 times the fiber content when compared to traditional white flour.

“Whole wheat ingredient innovation allows bakers to increase whole grain content while maintaining the eating experience students are familiar with,” said Lauren Lahn, senior research and development manager, Ardent Mills.

Ardent Mills offers several whole wheat options tailored to different applications. Their grains have a finer particle size, which helps create a softer texture and appearance that is more similar to products made with refined flour.

“From a formulation standpoint, bakers can generally begin with a one-to-one replacement for traditional whole wheat flour,” Lahn said. “In many applications, up to 30% of white flour can be replaced with minimal adjustments. At higher inclusion levels, additional water may be needed to support hydration and dough performance.”

White whole wheat flour is another option. It has become a leading whole grain for school bakery applications, and it improves nutrition while maintaining student acceptance.

“Bakers may also consider finely milled whole grain flours, enzyme systems, emulsifiers and starch-based texture solutions to support softness, volume and eating quality while helping reduce graininess,” Blissenbach said. “Whole grain-rich formulations can affect color, volume, softness and flavor. Added sugar reduction can affect sweetness, browning, moisture and shelf life. Sodium reduction can change flavor perception.”

Bakers need to account for ingredient interactions while keeping products practical for school kitchens and appealing to students.

“Incorporating alternative and ancient grains, such as sorghum, barley, quinoa, millet and flax, can further elevate nutritional value while supporting whole grain goals,” said Kaitlin Prindle, bakery application scientist, ADM. “Beans, pulses, soy and pea protein also present opportunities to boost nutrition in products like muffins, waffles, pancakes and snack bars.”

Beneo offers whole grain beta-glucan-rich barley flour. It contains about 10 times the total fiber of traditional white flour and is high in protein.

“Its industry-leading content of beta-glucan and other soluble fiber supports the FDA-approved heart health claims, such as those found on oatmeal and whole grain snacks, at a very cost-effective level in baked goods,” said Kyle Krause, product manager, functional fibers and carbohydrates, Beneo. “This nutrient-dense, fiber-diverse, whole grain flour is perfect for children’s school nutrition, which can easily be incorporated into bread, bagels, muffins, cereals and other baked goods.”

Bakers who are suppliers to the K-12 school meal programs have many challenges ahead of them. Products must not only meet nutritional standards, but they also must offer enough menu value, student appeal and operational functionality to fit the school environment.