Hold the salt: Don’t let Big Dairy dictate the sodium content of our school lunches 

Federal child nutrition programs help millions of children access healthy food every day.  

The National School Lunch and Breakfast programs provide free or subsidized healthy meals in school for around 30 million children every year. And healthy school meals are associated with a reduced risk of food insufficiency, better attendance rates, better test scores and fewer missed school days for children. The foods provided by these programs are informed by the latest nutrition science, such as the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are updated every five years.  

But just when this sounds like a science-based success story, enter Big Dairy to argue for an exemption so that meals could be less healthy. 

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed revised nutrition requirements for school meals so they would align with the recommendations of the 2020-2025 dietary guidelines while considering the challenges faced by school nutrition programs, largely caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposal includes multi-year, gradually phased-in requirements, coupled with more than $100 million in investments to help schools improve the nutritional quality of school meals. 

A key element in this proposal would reduce sodium in breakfast by 20 percent by 2027 and 30 percent in lunches by 2029, achieved through a series of two-year 10 percent reductions. 

Currently, high school lunches may contain 1,280 mg sodium, or 56 percent of a day’s worth of sodium. By 2029-2030, under the USDA’s proposed rule, lunches should not exceed 935 mg, or 41 percent of a day’s worth — a limit that still will make it challenging for students to stay within expert sodium recommendations. 

These evidence-based updates to the sodium limits are critical, since nearly all children in the U.S. consume too much sodium, which is linked to high blood pressure. And one in six children currently have raised blood pressure. 

Revisions to child nutrition programs can have a big impact on children’s health — and industry. Following passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 and subsequent updates to school nutrition standards, the nutritional quality of school foods improved significantly; researchers concluded that in 2017-2018, foods consumed in school were higher in nutritional quality than foods from grocery stores, worksites and restaurants. Manufacturers developed new products and reformulated existing K-12 products to fit the new guidelines. Many schools have even surpassed sodium reduction requirements.  

But there’s still room for major improvements, and according to a recent study modeling the impacts of strengthening school nutrition standards, sodium reduction would deliver greater health and economic benefits than any other nutritional change. 

Despite USDA’s measured, science-based approach, Big Dairy is looking for a way out. Their strategy? They’ve successfully lobbied Congress to insert a rider in both the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2024 spending bill requiring a special exemption for sodium in cheese used for “food safety and functional purposes,” or else USDA won’t be permitted implement the new sodium standards at all.  

Salt has been used for millennia as a preservative and contributes to texture and flavor. Never mind that it is already one of the top 10 foods that contribute to excess sodium in kids’ diets. No doubt cheese makers will not be the last industry to claim that the sodium in their products is used for food safety and functional processes, potentially opening the floodgates to more exemptions, allowing the exception to swallow the rule.  

But from a public health perspective, sodium in cheese is no better or worse than sodium in other food products, and thus doesn’t warrant an exemption. In fact, cheese manufacturers have developed lower sodium cheeses that already comply with the proposed sodium limits.  

The sodium limits for schools are expressed as averages, allowing a balance of higher and lower sodium items. Thus, schools can still serve anything from Swiss cheese (a lower-sodium cheese) to feta (one of the saltiest cheeses), and anything in-between as long as it averages out over time. But if Congress keeps this rider, they will be incentivizing cheese manufacturers to abandon any sodium reduction efforts and for schools to just serve more cheese — putting corporate profit before children’s health. 

We’ve seen this movie before. Every time there are changes proposing to improve child nutrition programs, food industry interests cry foul and seek special treatment (see: limitless French fries and counting pizza as a vegetable). 

Congress should strike the “cheese rider” from the spending bill and leave developing nutrition standards to the USDA and the scientific community. The health of our future leaders and the integrity of our federal child nutrition programs depend on it. 

Colin Schwartz, MPP, B.A. B.S., is director of Federal Affairs for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Previously he served as director of government affairs at the Physicians Committee; policy and communications manager for the American Association of People with Disabilities; and manager of Viral Hepatitis Policy and Legislative Affairs at the National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors. 

Meghan Maroney, MPH, B.S., is the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s campaign manager for federal child nutrition programs. She worked previously as nutrition project coordinator and food standards coordinator for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.