MyPlate Icon

MyPlate is a new USDA food icon which is intended to help remind consumers about healthier food choices. The new MyPlate icon emphasizes the fruit, vegetable, grains, protein and dairy food groups.

MyPlate will replace the MyPyramid image as the government’s primary food group symbol as an easy-to-understand visual cue to help consumers adopt healthy eating habits consistent with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

MyPyramid will remain available to interested health professionals and nutrition educators in a special section of the new website.

For more information, visit: ChooseMyPlate.gov

source: USDA press release

USDA 2011 Consumer Price Index

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service has released its 2011 Consumer
Price Index analysis for projections on food prices.

According to the index, overall food prices are expected to increase 2% to 3% this year.

Food purchased from grocery stores as well as food-away-from-home (restaurant) prices are forecasted to increase 2 to 3 percent.

Although food price inflation was relatively weak for most of 2009 and 2010, higher food commodity and energy prices have recently exerted pressure on wholesale and retail food prices.

As a result, higher prices are projected to push inflation toward the historical average inflation rate of 2 to 3 percent in 2011.

New Nutritional Standards for School Meals Proposed

On January 13, 2010, The U.S. Department of Agriculture published a proposed rule to update the nutrition standards for meals served through the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 13, 2010.

The new proposed meal requirements will raise standards for the first time in fifteen years and will make critical changes to school meals and help improve the health and nutrition of nearly 32 million kids that participate in school meal programs every school day, an important component of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative to solve the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation.

The proposed changes to school meal standards, which would add more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat-free and low-fat milk to school meals, are based on recommendations released in October 2009 by the National Academies' Institute of Medicine (IOM) and presented in their report, School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children. Schools would also be required to limit the levels of saturated fat, sodium, calories, and trans fats in meals. A comparison of the proposed nutrition standards can be viewed here.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act gives schools and communities new tools to meet the challenge of providing more nutritious food including increasing school lunch reimbursements by 6 cents per meal, and increasing technical assistance. School meal programs are a partnership between USDA, State agencies and local schools, and USDA will work with schools and communities to help improve meals so that they are consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

According to government data, almost 32 percent of children 6 to 19 years of age are overweight or obese; the number of obese children in this age range has trebled in the last few decades. These children are more likely to have risk factors associated with chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and Type 2 diabetes. Updated school meal standards are a central part of the strategy developed by President Obama's Childhood Obesity Task Force to provide healthier food at schools, and in turn, work toward resolving childhood obesity.

USDA is seeking input on the proposed rule from the public through April 13, 2011. Those interested in reviewing the proposal and offering comments are encouraged to do so at www.regulations.gov

According to USDA, comments will be considered carefully in finalizing the rule before it is implemented.

source: USDA press release