USDA: Big plans for soy in school food programs
WASHINGTON
(December 23, 1999 2:15 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com)
Federal
officials who say they are worried about the fat in kids' meals want to
let schools and day care centers serve tofu, veggieburgers and other
soy products as meat substitutes in federally subsidized
lunches.
By PHILIP
BRASHER
The
Agriculture Department is proposing to drop its restrictions on how
much soy can be used in meals. Under current rules, soy can only be a
food additive and only in amounts of less than 30 percent. President
Reagan's budget crunchers tried to make tofu a meat substitute nearly
two decades ago - at the same time they tried to reclassify ketchup as
a vegetable - but they beat a hasty retreat when the idea became a
lightning rod for opponents of his spending cuts. USDA officials deny
their motive now is to save money, arguing instead that soy is a good
source of protein.
"It's time
has come," said Shirley Watkins, USDA's undersecretary for food,
nutrition and consumer services. "I think people are more receptive
than they would have been five or ten years ago."
Beef, pork
and poultry producers are fighting the move, but schools like it
because they are having trouble complying with government limits on the
fat content of meals. And for the fast-growing soy industry, the $6
billion school lunch program offers a vast new market and a way to
introduce families to the expanding array of new, better-tasting
products that have been developed in recent years. Although the
proposal would allow schools to offer meatless entrees - tofu-stuffed
ravioli is one menu possibility - nutritionists say schools are more
likely to use it to increase the amount of soy that they blend into
their standard fare: burgers, tacos and the like. The question is
whether kids will still eat them.
Market
research sponsored by the United Soybean Board indicated the 26 million
children who participate in the school lunch program would accept soy
products. Kids, however, are notoriously finicky consumers, said
Lincoln Pierce, director of nutrition programs for the Grand Junction,
Colo., schools.
"If you
tell kids there's soy in it, they don't seem to like it as well," said
Pierce. "In blind tests they approve of it, but their heads haven't
caught up with their taste buds."
USDA's
proposal has its roots in a decision the department made in 1994 to
start requiring schools to meet the government's dietary guidelines for
fat and nutrients. That meant that the fat content in school menus
could no longer exceed 30 percent over a week.
Schools
have cut the amount of cheese in pizzas and the number of meat balls
they serve with spaghetti, but they still struggle to stay under the
limit. Some have tried offering beef patties made with prune puree only
to have kids turn up their noses at what became known around the
lunchroom as "prune burgers."
The soy
proposal has pit soybean farmers against cattle ranchers and other
livestock producers, who argue that children won't get sufficient
protein or enough iron and zinc if they eat less meat.
A standard
soyburger, which contains no meat, has 3 grams of fat, compared to 16
in a beef patty, and a significant amount of calcium. But the soyburger
has a third less protein than the beef patty and no iron or zinc.
Celeste
Peggs, executive director of West Virginia's Child Nutrition Office,
says she worries that more children will become anemic if schools cut
back on meat. Iron-rich foods other than meat, such as spinach, "are
not always the popular food items among children," she said.
USDA
officials play down those concerns, saying that children will get
plenty of those nutrients from other sources if their meals are
balanced.
Vegetarians
and animal rights activists have flooded USDA with letters and e-mail
messages praising the proposal, but the change may have an impact they
don't want. Allowing a higher soy content will make it easier for
schools to keep meat on their menus, said Carol Tucker Foreman,
director of the Consumer Federation of America's Food Policy
Institute.
"There is
every reason to believe the proposed rule will perpetuate the role of
meat and poultry in the school food programs, not threaten it," she
said.
Watkins
said she expects the department to make a final decision on the change
by mid-February. USDA approved yogurt as a meat substitute in 1997.
Copyright ©
1999 Associated Press
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