The future of traditional chocolate milk as a school cafeteria staple is up in the air as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) weighs the pros and cons of keeping it on kids’ menus.
As reported by The Dallas Express, the USDA developed new guidelines for public school lunches in February to make meals healthier by significantly reducing sodium and added sugars.
The new guidelines originally called for phasing out flavored milk because of its high added-sugar content, but the USDA retracted that specific proposal after facing pushback from some stakeholders who claimed the move could result in children drinking less milk.
“Flavored milk is a challenging issue to figure out exactly the best path forward,” said Cindy Long, administrator of USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, speaking with The Wall Street Journal. “We really do want to encourage children to consume milk and we also recognize the need to reduce added-sugar consumption.”
One study found that flavored milk plays an outsized role in students’ diets, noting that “[t]he leading source of added sugars in school meals (both breakfasts and lunches) was flavored skim milk.”
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, numerous health complications have been linked to the overconsumption of added sugars, including obesity and type 2 diabetes, two of the most prevalent preventable diseases. Childhood obesity, in particular, has been a growing health concern in recent years, especially in Texas.
While flavored milk has a similar amount of total sugars as soda, it does have some nutritional value as it serves as an important source of Vitamin D and calcium for younger people.
Rather than phasing out flavored milk completely, USDA decided to consider two alternatives, both of which involve setting an added-sugar limit.
One proposal suggests, “Beginning in school year (SY) 2025-26, allow flavored milk (fat-free and low-fat) at school lunch and breakfast for high school children (grades 9-12) only. Elementary and middle school children (grades K-8) would be limited to fat-free and/or low-fat unflavored milk.”
“USDA is also requesting public input on whether to extend the age range for flavored milk to also include children in grades 6-8, such that only children in grades K-5 would be limited to fat-free and/or low-fat unflavored milk,” the first proposal adds. “Under both scenarios, added sugars in flavored milk would be limited.”
The other option USDA proposed is to allow flavored milk across all grade levels, albeit with a cap on added sugars.
Parents and other stakeholders have since weighed in on the matter, with some lining up against the initiative.
“I think that’s more of my job as a parent to tell them what they should and shouldn’t be able to have, versus the school telling them,” said Tracy Harrington, a Watertown, Massachusetts, mother, per CBS News Boston.
Katie Wilson, executive director of the Urban School Food Alliance, also sounded off against the proposals.
“We want to take a product that most kids like and that has nine essential nutrients in it and say, ‘You can’t drink this, you have to drink plain’? What are we trying to prove?” Wilson said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
For its part, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) announced that its members would lower the added-sugar content of its flavored milk products.
“Beginning with the 2025-2026 school year, 37 school milk processors representing more than 90% of the school milk volume in the United States commit to provide healthy, nutritious school milk options with no more than 10 grams of added sugar per 8 fluid ounce serving, fully consistent with the latest federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans and ahead of current school meal nutrition guidelines established by the [USDA],” IDFA stated in a news release.
