The enemy within

What do cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and salt have in common? They are all being regulated in some way by the U.S. government due to their potential negative effects on health.

Few people would argue that we consume too much salt—a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 90% of teenagers and adults in this country consumed more than the recommended amount of sodium. But how bad is salt anyway? It has many useful attributes, food safety and taste chief among them. So where do you draw the line between helpful and harmful?

The USDA is attempting to ascertain this as it pertains to school meals. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is trying to address the sodium problem by calling for three reductions during a period of 10 years. The first of these goes into effect this fall. The USDA estimates that schools will have to cut salt between 5 percent and 10 percent to comply with the initial salt step-down. By the time the third cut comes into place in school year 2022-2023, the USDA estimates schools will have had to reduce sodium between 25 percent and 50 percent to comply.

“The first [reduction] is reasonable. It’s the steps after that are concerning,” says Amy Virus, manager of administrative and support services for the School District of Philadelphia.

Virus’ sentiments were echoed by many directors, many of whom knew cutting back on sodium would eventually be asked of them. Because of this, many directors have spent the last five or so years finding ways to cut the salt.

A hot situation

Wendy Weyer, R.D., director of nutrition services at Seattle Public Schools, has already achieved the reductions needed for the first cut. She attributes much of that success to the fact that Washington state had already put into place regulations for sodium reduction, which gave her the time to gradually reduce the sodium in her meals.

“When I looked at target one, I thought we were already there and felt good about our success moving forward,” Weyer says. “I know a lot of other states weren’t there.”

That doesn’t mean cutting the salt was easy. The district has used herbs to make foods more palatable. But it’s also had to remove items, some of which were popular, like hot sauce.

“Hot sauce is one of those items that years ago our students were using by the gallon,” she recalls. “They were putting it on top of everything. A lot of our students who came from foreign countries really used that condiment. You’ve got to factor that into your overall nutritional analysis.”

When Weyer removed the condiment seven or eight years ago, it wasn’t received favorably by students. “It was not popular,” she says. “Students still talk about it. We’ve heard students are hiding hot sauce in their pockets and bringing it into the cafeteria. It’s concerning that we’re training kids to have hot sauce and shakers in their pockets to enhance the food we are serving.”

Hot sauce is also an issue in Cincinnati Public Schools. One of the district’s most popular vegetables is mixed greens, which includes spinach, collard greens, mustard greens and turnip greens. Why is it so popular? It’s served with a packet of hot sauce, which is typically high in sodium.

“We’re working to find a lower sodium hot sauce,” says Jessica Shelly, food services director. “Here I have kids who are eating a half cup to a cup of dark leafy greens, happily. You take away that hot sauce packet and they aren’t going to eat it. We’re really throwing out the baby with the bathwater there because we’re so afraid of the sodium in a packet of hot sauce. That doesn’t make any sense to me at all. When you take things away from the kids, that’s when they begin to notice.”

Baby steps

For many foodservice directors, making small, incremental changes is the best way to reduce sodium without negatively affecting participation.

“We tried to cut back on sodium so it wasn’t noticeable,” says Clare Keating, vice president of marketing for Preferred Meals, the Berkeley, Ill.-based provider of meal solutions. The company provides menu planning and meal services to districts across the country. “Every time we reformulated a meal, we tried to bring the sodium level down a little bit so it wasn’t so drastic.”

Keating says most of the company’s meals are already within the first sodium reduction. Only a few of the items, mostly tomato-based sauces, still need some work to reduce the salt.

The company has reduced salt by asking vendors for lower sodium options, simply cutting the amount of sodium in recipes or using other flavor enhancers besides salt, such as herbs.

Jon Dickl, director of school nutrition for Knox County Schools, in Knoxville, Tenn., has used many of the same tactics to reduce salt. Dickl also has a sea salt and potassium chloride blend that he uses when he can’t achieve the same palatability with herbs only. Dickl’s menus are within 60 milligrams of meeting the first sodium reduction.

Cincinnati’s Shelly developed flavor stations in cooperation with McCormick and Cambro. Flavor stations are caddies that hang off salad bars that hold shakers of a Mexican spice, an Italian spice, crushed red pepper flakes and garlic pepper—all sodium-free flavor enhancers. “If I’m giving a kid an entrée that has [less] sodium, he can go and flavor it up so that it’s not so distinctly noticeable,” she says.

Shelly also worked with JTM Food Group to create a burger with mushrooms, which lowered the sodium content by half.

Some districts had to remove items, however. Cheese seems to be one of those foods that increasingly is falling into this category. Lynnelle Grumbles, R.D., director of nutritional services for Visalia Unified School District, in California, has taken some cheese products off the menu.

Philadelphia has also removed items that are cheese stuffed, like mozzarella sticks. Other items directors are reducing or eliminating because of high sodium content include lunch meats and bread items.

Dickl’s No. 1 breakfast item was a biscuit. He’s hoping to find a lower sodium, good-tasting version, but until he can do so he’s menuing an alternative option, like a croissant. “If I’m going to get students complaining about the biscuit [because it’s lower in sodium and doesn’t taste as good] then I’m going to cut it from three days to one,” he says.

The other half of the equation

Dickl’s search for a better low-sodium biscuit highlights one of the main challenges—and opportunities—for the industry. Schools purchase premade products from manufacturers, which must now reduce the amount of sodium in their items or lose money in the school foodservice business.

Many companies, like the districts, saw sodium reduction coming and began working years ago to cut it. Schwan’s Food Service has been working to reduce sodium since 2006, according to Karen Wilder, R.D., senior director of scientific and regulatory affairs. Wilder says that by the time the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was released, the company had already reduced the sodium in its products by 20 percent.

Wilder estimated that 10 percent of Schwan’s products had to be tweaked to comply with the first reduction. The focus for sodium reduction has been on breakfast. “Breakfast items are a little more challenging simply because you’re talking about usually a combination of a protein and a bread item,” she says. “Bread is one of the major contributors to sodium in the American diet.”

Schwan’s first step in cutting the salt was working with ingredient suppliers—meat and cheese purveyors—to see what kind of lower sodium products they could supply.

“Are salt substitutes in some of those items? There may be some but one of the challenges that we have is there isn’t a one-size-fits-all replacement for salt,” Wilder says. “What we end up doing first is just reducing the amount of salt in products but maybe boosting the flavor. So some of our pizza sauces have more of a spice profile and that helps to [hide] the fact that we reduced the salt. We still have to deal with the leavening agents, because the dough isn’t going to rise without some kind of leavening agent, which has salt.”

Like Schwan’s, Kikkoman has developed lower-sodium products for schools. “Sodium reduction isn’t just a matter of using less salt. It’s all about using the right combinations of ingredients so kids don’t miss the flavor of salt,” says Debbie Carpenter, senior manager, national foodservice sales & marketing, Kikkoman Sales USA Inc.

Kikkoman has worked with Ann Cooper, chef and director at Boulder Valley School District, in Colorado, to create “a variety of low-sodium, kid-pleasing menu ideas in a variety of cuisines.”

A losing game?

Many directors report there’s been great dialogue between districts and manufacturers when it comes to developing low-sodium products. That doesn’t mean it’s been easy for either side.

R&D takes time and money, and for most companies, creating low-sodium products is just the latest step in the evolution of school meals. These companies have also been challenged with creating products that met protein and grain maximums set forth by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Those maximums have since been lifted, but companies were forced to backtrack and were often left with inventory they could no longer sell.

“I think manufacturers have had to react quickly, they’ve had to make changes and in doing so I think a lot of manufacturing has taken a hit financially, especially by sitting on inventory,” Knox County’s Dickl says. “A lot of manufacturers are sitting on excess inventory of school-focused items because they had to change recipes and modify things so quickly. When there was a grain and meat requirement they immediately switched their products to accommodate lower grain or protein. Then all of a sudden that was lifted, which was great, but the ripple effect is that these manufacturers that created a one and half grain, now everyone wants to be two grains again. They can’t sell it on the street or in restaurants because most restaurants aren’t [using] these whole-grain items.”

The USDA’s backtrack on maximums highlights another issue: The sodium reductions for targets two and three could change (see infographic on p. 28). Jim Cough, president of AdvancePierre Foods, mentioned this conundrum at the School Nutrition Association’s SNIC conference in January. Essentially his question was, “How do we develop products when we don’t know what targets to hit, especially when you factor in the cost it takes to reformulate products?”

That has school foodservice directors nervous as well. While most directors don’t believe the Schwan’s or AdvancePierres of the world will get out of the school food business, they can’t say the same for smaller companies.

“I don’t think the big players are going to leave,” Shelly says. “I think it’s the small ones, and that’s a shame because some of those smaller ones are the ones that come up with the ingenious ideas.”

Dickl thinks some companies might reduce the number of SKUs they produce to cut down on inventory and needed R&D. “Companies have tried to be everything for everybody, and I think there’s going to be a little bit of a change in focus. I don’t see them backing out of the school business. I think it might be a delay in some R&D. I think some of them are waiting to see if these sodium targets stay in place, so people don’t get stuck with inventory.”

What the future holds

Wilder says Schwan’s never thought about leaving schools, but she does think school meals could dramatically change if the third level remains as it stands.

“By the time we get to round three, I would say that the pizza of today may not be available in the school meal program because the sodium levels are so low. That’s going to change the texture of that whole-grain crust,” she says. She also thinks there will be more snack-type items offered as lunch entrées because those products will be reformulated to meet competitive food regulations that will go into effect soon.

“We’re confident that we’ll have items available that will meet the third level,” she says. “To say that we’ll get to a pizza that has the same eating appeal as it is today, that’s going to require new technology and more sophistication when it comes to the flavor profiles.

“It’s going to take some resources. Changing someone’s palate to accept lower sodium is a trick,” she adds.

And that’s exactly where foodservice directors are taking issue with the new regs. Many wonder if it’s too much too soon, considering other dining venues aren’t being held to the same standards.

“I’m a little concerned we’re going a little too far too fast,” Shelly says. “I think there’s a need to look at healthier choices, but I’m not sure that targeted at such a low rate is a smart decision because it goes against what people are doing in regular society. If they aren’t doing it in the homes, restaurants and stores, it’s going to be very hard for us to do it in the schools. There’s a lack of continuity there that I’m worried about, that it’s going to make school meals seem that they aren’t as nutritious and delicious as they really are because we’re being held to a higher standard.”

Grumbles is also concerned about meeting the third tier. “We’re running a business here, too. That’s not the first thing we do, but we have to break even,” she says. “That’s the nature of our business. We need kids to participate in order to do that. To provide kids with a healthier meal, we have to entice them to eat them, otherwise they are going to bring higher sodium things from home.”