Salt levels in school meals source of contention
Among the contentious points in USDA’s proposed “Nutritional Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs” is sodium, which is a major component in salt. The school meal standards adopted the salt restrictions in the 2010 dietary guidelines, which the Salt Institute claims are unreliable and unscientific, and are resulting in a misguided school nutrition proposal.
“The flawed sodium provisions in the Dietary Guidelines cause significant harm to the public and the salt producers that we represent, by distributing scientifically unsupportable information disparaging sodium, a mineral essential to human health,” according to a letter signed by Salt Institute president, Lori Roman.
The letter, sent to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, requests the withdrawal of the provisions in the guidelines.