Troubleshooting

How to create new formulations to meet school nutrition requirements


By Guest Contributor on 7/8/2013

A good lunch is critical to students’ ability to focus and learn in school. It also helps set the stage for a lifetime of healthy eating. With new U.S. regulatory standards and public health imperatives to improve children's diets, school lunch lines are working to remove fat- and calorie-laden staples and replacing them with reduced-fat nutrient-dense alternatives.

Calorie consumption and obesity have both crept steadily upward since the 1970s, causing public health experts and parents to raise the alarm. With one in three U.S. children overweight or obese, formulators are working hard to create products with an eye toward:

  • Adding "positives" such as whole grains and fiber;
  • Removing "negatives," such as excess sodium and saturated fat;
  • Enhancing nutrient density with more vitamins and minerals;
  • Providing balanced nutrition within a meal;
  • Delivering more kid-friendly tastes and textures; and
  • Making “better-for-you treats”

With nearly 5.5 billion lunches served each year in school cafeterias, there is an opportunity to influence children’s eating habits. School nutrition professionals and food and beverage manufacturers that sell into the school lunch and breakfast program are looking for help in formulating better-for-you foods that students — notoriously picky eaters — won't leave on their lunch trays. While the nutrition of school lunch foods is important, taste is key to ensuring children will eat what is put before them.

Revised dietary guidelines

The provisions of the Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act put in place in January 2010, which guides the U.S. Department of Agriculture's subsidized meals programs, call for more fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain-rich food, fat-free or low-fat milk, reduced sodium content, fewer calories and less saturated fat, and no trans fat.

One strategy to help meet these guidelines and to contain costs is to rethink meat content.

Soaring meat prices have sent food and beverage manufacturers scrambling for ways to manage their raw material costs while continuing to produce great-tasting products. Because of the demand for beef — particularly lean beef — and fewer cattle being raised due to higher production costs, beef prices have increased significantly. Likewise, chicken, pork and turkey prices have risen due to increasing input costs.

Still, other less expensive proteins are always available to supplement the meat.

Textured soy protein complements meat

The traditional product for making meat go further, textured soy protein combined with beef can pack enough protein to meet school lunch program credit requirements. For example, Cargill recently formulated a mini-burger prototype that featured a cost-effective beef patty on a whole grain bun, a reduction in fat, plus a protein source that would meet school lunch program credit requirements.

It was also formulated to fit the National Restaurant Association’s Kids LiveWell program to help parents and children select healthful menu options. The mini-beef patty combines textured soy flour and defatted soy flour with beef. The soy flours are low-cost and contain 50 percent protein, and it improves the texture of lean meat products by helping them retain a moist and juicy taste.

Not only does the textured soy protein extend the meat by 40 percent, it helps address several childhood nutrition issues. With their child-pleasing compact presentation and juicy flavor, it's easy to forget that these 2-ounce cooked patties have only 5 grams of fat. The buns contain 7 grams of whole grain per 28-gram bun made from 100 percent whole-grain corn and 100 percent white whole-wheat flour while maintaining the light color, mild flavor and softer texture that children prefer.

The mini burgers meet USDA guidelines of 10 percent or fewer calories from saturated fat. In short, parents can feel good about it, schools find it cost-effective, and children like it.

Looking to soy for value and versatility

Not only does textured soy protein supplement meat, it controls cost-per-serving when, as in the mini-beef patties, it is infused with the modified starch, soy flour and citric acid stabilizer system.

Flexible, consistent and functional, textured soy protein offers a pleasing texture, boosts protein content, builds viscosity, manages water and oil and ensures proper gelling. Soy is well-accepted as a healthy protein source, with consumers accustomed to seeing it as an ingredient on grocery store shelves.

Textured soy protein chews, tastes and feels like meat but is less expensive than fresh meat and soy protein isolate. Just as important, a consistent supply of soy ensures that it is affordable.

As one of the largest meat producers and ingredient suppliers in North America, Cargill has a holistic view of the industry, with the ability to create feasible meat alternatives. The company can even suggest "swing meat formulas" for use during times of high demand for a particular meat protein, as well as ways to help reduce yield loss.

 

Tom Katen is a technical service specialist with Cargill. He has been with the company for the last 10 of his more than 25 years in the industry.

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