I'll be very interested to see the definition of "ultra-processed" in this legislation. I couldn't find one at a first glance - it seems to mandate that someone defines it, but doesn't contain a definition itself from what I could see.
Edit: Found it. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml... (thanks to @crummy for the correction). Seems like a reasonable start. Amusing to see that alcoholic drinks are specifically not considered ultra-processed foods for the purposes of school meals!
> In July 2025, the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 32.7 percent of children and youth between 12 and 19 years old are prediabetic.
If you've never worked in food before, you may be unaware that borderline half of the foods you eat, in restaurants, hospitals, prisons, even schools, are just the same frozen foods from Sysco. Their products are sold nationally and are lower quality than the frozen foods you get at the grocery stores, sold at ridiculous markups at restaurants. Sysco UPFs are at best "mid" and usually worse. They also involve a lot of worker exploitation in Mexico and the far-east.
A popular meme variation in the chef community is as follows:
What's ultra-processed vs processed? If I make my own sausage by grinding the meat by hand, mixing it with salt and spices, then filling natural casings, I would consider that processed food. What makes it ultra-processed? When Hormel does it instead?
Because that's mostly what they have access to, since sadly, garbage food is the cheapest food there is. Not only is healthy unprocessed food expensive, but it also hard to find in low income neighborhoods.
But when it comes to school lunches specifically, they're getting those for free in many (most? all?) states if they're low income. So these changes should benefit them (even if the kids would prefer coke and fries).
I can imagine that some „food“ corps going berserk now. And setting up campaigns worth millions against these moves.
I have drastically reduced the amount of ultra processed food in my diet, now eating clean food only, and I cannot describe in words how my energy level climbed to levels I have never seen in the past years. My blood glucose is stable, my mood as well, and I have no cravings. Also my body weight dropped significantly. Although I eat full plates with vegetables, fish, poultry.
This brings back fond memories of growing up in the 80s eating school cafeteria concoctions like “flying saucers” which were a slice of bologna topped with a perfectly round scoop of instant mashed potatoes, into which was stuck a bright yellow-orange stick of ‘cheese’.
I always thought it was a travesty that the "chefs" at my schools were just heating up junk food. It's the perfect place to achieve the economies of scale to produce whole-foods-based meals. But yet no 'real' food - dishes made from raw meat and raw vegetables that are processed in-house - was ever produced. I honestly don't think this will change in my lifetime. It's too much work and it feels like working hard, especially in a government position, is seen as making you a chump in our culture today.
Not only is the study itself very interesting, but it does a great job going over the evidence landscape on UPFs and food at the current point in time.
Dr Dicken is very clear that at the moment, in his view, they have insufficient evidence to make policy decisions like this, a view that has been echoed by pretty much all academic institutions when they’ve helped inform recent dietary guidelines.
Making big sweeping moves based on flimsy evidence is a good way to make people wary of following dietary guidance at all. After all, what’s the point of listening to “the science” if they turn around in 5 years and say “whoops, turns out we were wrong”?
A lot of these limits seem to be set so high that they won't have much impact. But at the same time, the calories limit per item and saturated fat limit are low enough that you potentially cant serve a baked chicken thigh.
Our school offers free lunch to all, but we pack our kids' lunches, with almost entirely minimally processed foods (fresh veggies, fruits, fresh bread [not Bimbo garbage], cheese [not sliced Kraft, also garbage], natural peanut butter and fruit preserves (not jam/jelly, also garbage), eggs, bean burritos (which we make ourselves), etc.
But it's discouraging how expensive and time consuming it is in today's world just to try to keep our kids healthy. We're not wealthy by any means, but this is what we prioritize in our spending. We could probably cut our monthly food bill in half by buying garbage food from Walmart (but then we'd end up paying more in health care costs).
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[ 1.7 ms ] story [ 48.1 ms ] thread"Brazil limits ultra-processed foods in school meals to 15%"
https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/politica/noticia/2025-02...
Edit: Found it. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml... (thanks to @crummy for the correction). Seems like a reasonable start. Amusing to see that alcoholic drinks are specifically not considered ultra-processed foods for the purposes of school meals!
> In July 2025, the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 32.7 percent of children and youth between 12 and 19 years old are prediabetic.
Wow.
A popular meme variation in the chef community is as follows:
"Wait, it's all just Sysco?" "Always has been"
Sport won't fix that, food will.
It's not to say one couldn't use large scale machinery to make real healthy food in my general though.
Spoiler: The science and definitions are... depressingly bad.
But when it comes to school lunches specifically, they're getting those for free in many (most? all?) states if they're low income. So these changes should benefit them (even if the kids would prefer coke and fries).
I have drastically reduced the amount of ultra processed food in my diet, now eating clean food only, and I cannot describe in words how my energy level climbed to levels I have never seen in the past years. My blood glucose is stable, my mood as well, and I have no cravings. Also my body weight dropped significantly. Although I eat full plates with vegetables, fish, poultry.
Yum!
Not only is the study itself very interesting, but it does a great job going over the evidence landscape on UPFs and food at the current point in time.
Dr Dicken is very clear that at the moment, in his view, they have insufficient evidence to make policy decisions like this, a view that has been echoed by pretty much all academic institutions when they’ve helped inform recent dietary guidelines.
Making big sweeping moves based on flimsy evidence is a good way to make people wary of following dietary guidance at all. After all, what’s the point of listening to “the science” if they turn around in 5 years and say “whoops, turns out we were wrong”?
This is a misstep IMO.
Our school offers free lunch to all, but we pack our kids' lunches, with almost entirely minimally processed foods (fresh veggies, fruits, fresh bread [not Bimbo garbage], cheese [not sliced Kraft, also garbage], natural peanut butter and fruit preserves (not jam/jelly, also garbage), eggs, bean burritos (which we make ourselves), etc.
But it's discouraging how expensive and time consuming it is in today's world just to try to keep our kids healthy. We're not wealthy by any means, but this is what we prioritize in our spending. We could probably cut our monthly food bill in half by buying garbage food from Walmart (but then we'd end up paying more in health care costs).