WASHINGTON (AP) — High-calorie sports drinks and candy bars will be removed from school vending machines and cafeteria lines as soon as next year, replaced with diet drinks, granola bars and other healthier items.
The Agriculture Department announced Thursday that for the first time it will make sure that all foods sold in the nation's 100,000 schools are healthier by expanding fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits to almost everything sold during the school day.
That includes snacks sold around the school and foods on the "a la carte" line in cafeterias, which have never been regulated before. The new rules, proposed in February and made final this week, also would allow states to regulate student bake sales.
The rules were required under a child nutrition law passed by Congress in 2010.
