Tray Trends: This Year’s New Cafeteria Items
The beginning of the school year is a convenient time for cafeterias to tweak their menus and introduce new foods. So it's also the time when the food industry showcases all the new items it has cooked up for school lunchrooms. Last month, I attended the School Nutrition Association's annual ...
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August 26, 2009
Corn Refiners to Ann Cooper: Keep HFCS in Lunch
The Corn Refiners Association really has its eye on school lunch these days. For one thing, the association was one of the sponsors of the School Nutrition Association's 2009 national conference (posters throughout the hall read, "High Fructose Corn Syrup: Making Healthy Foods Affordable for America's Schoolchildren"). The association is ...
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July 27, 2009
Fast Food in Schools, and Some Other Cafeteria Numbers From 2008
After sampling my way through the School Nutrition Association's food expo earlier this month, I picked up a copy of the organization's annual survey of school cafeterias. I just got around to leafing through it, and some of the numbers jumped out at me. The most shocking piece of the report ...
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July 26, 2009
Tray Trends: Bubble-Gum-Flavored Apples, and Other Sights at the SNA Food Show
Imagine if Las Vegas built a Costco-themed hotel with a particular emphasis on chicken nugget samples and then filled the building with lunch ladies. That's the best way I can describe the School Nutrition Association's annual food expo, which is taking place right now in Vegas' Mandalay Bay Convention Center. ...
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June 30, 2009
Tray Trends: As Restaurants Lean Healthier, Might Cafeterias Follow?
In February, Erik Peterson, the public awareness director for the School Nutrition Association, told me that school meals have always been a reflection of the broader American diet. Foodservice directors often visit restaurants and mall food courts on the weekends and observe what kids these days like to eat, he ...
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June 16, 2009
Tray Trends: Pizza Flavored Stuffed Beef Mini Bites, and Other Goodies From Tyson
Tyson calls itself the "leading supplier of protein" to school foodservice. The company supplies patties and nuggets to thousands of schools across the country, including 95 of the 100 biggest districts. What's coming out of those corporate kitchens? Recently released items include Chicken Round Ups (ring-shaped chicken nuggets made with ...
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May 22, 2009
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