Statement of Task

A multidisciplinary committee of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) will be convened to review and make recommendations regarding appropriate nutrition standards for the availability, sale, content, and consumption of foods and beverages at school, with attention given to foods and beverages offered in competition with federally-reimbursable meals and snacks. Specifically, the committee will:

• Draw on literature regarding the availability, nutritional profile, and risks (including substitution) of school foods and beverages, including recent work by the General Accountability Office, as appropriate;
• Synthesize lessons learned from relevant research, development of federal nutrition standards for the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, and experience from the development of state- and local-based standards for foods and beverages offered outside federally-reimbursable meals and snacks;
• Consider whether a single set of nutrition standards is appropriate for elementary, middle, and high schools, or if more than one set is needed;
• Develop nutrition standards, based on nutritional science, for foods and beverages offered in school, with a focus on foods and beverages offered outside federally-reimbursable meals and snacks;
• Consider how to assure that foods and beverages offered in schools contribute to an overall healthful eating environment; and
• Develop benchmarks to guide future evaluation studies of the application of the standards.

Timeline

During fall 2005 and spring 2006 the committee held sessions open to the public to gather information for its deliberations.

Project Report

A report from the committee on Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools was released on April 25, 2007. The audio web cast from the public briefing can be accessed through the following link: http://www.nap.edu/webcast/webcast_list.php.

Sponsor

This study is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.