In January 2012, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture released new standards for the School Lunch Program that feeds some 32 million kids nationwide, the changes had far-reaching implications for seafood processors. In its quest to create healthier meals for kids, the USDA stipulated an increase in offerings of whole grain-rich foods, a focus on reducing quantities of saturated fat, trans fats and sodium, and a limitation on calories being served to ensure proper portion sizes.
Schools have three years to implement the key changes in their lunch programs, but many have jumped on the bandwagon right away. For Ned Hawkins, corporate account manager for K-12 at High Liner Foods in Portsmouth, N.H., (with global headquarters in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia) it meant his usual task of selling products had been diverted to creating new items and new breading profiles, updating nutritionals and ensuring the company’s products meet USDA regulations.
“Making the products didn’t seem to be hard — we knew we needed to reduce sodium in batters and breadings, create items comprised of 51 percent whole grain breading and move toward chemical-free pollock,” he says. High Liner has changed the breading and flavor profiles of its fish sticks and tried to make its potato crunch item, a popular coating system for pollock portions, fillets and sticks, whole-grain compliant “without changing the shape of the products — so we’re not scaring kids further away from the lunch room,” Hawkins said.
“Because schools have to keep within caloric parameters and whole grain bread equivalents, we’ve had to architecturally design products to help them meet those parameters. For example, if they’re only allowed 10 grain servings per week, it’s easier for them to calculate that based on two grains per day. In the beginning we didn’t see it from the school’s perspective, but we realized if we didn’t revise our items to help the schools meet their challenges, they wouldn’t buy our products.”
The School Lunch Program represents 20 million pounds of mostly pollock to High Liner Foods, but the company also supplies cod and whiting to the program. Three to four years ago, when pollock became part of the USDA commodities program, its inclusion meant it became more affordable to many public schools.
Click here to read the full story which ran in the January issue of SeaFood Business >
