Food and beverage manufacturer Kraft Heinz said Tuesday that it no longer is serving the Lunchables meals it created for U.S. schools.<\/p>\n
The company introduced the two packaged meals \u2014 one starring pizza and the other a turkey, cheddar cheese and cracker plate \u2014 at the beginning of the 2023-2024 academic year. At the time, Kraft Heinz said the offerings were protein-enriched and contained reduced levels of saturated fat and sodium to meet the requirements of the national free and reduced-price school lunch program.<\/p>\n
Nutritionists and advocacy groups were not thrilled by the launch. The Center for Science in the Public Interest called having Lunchables in cafeterias \u201ca highly questionable move for school nutrition\u201d that might confuse families into thinking the versions sold at supermarkets were a healthy option.<\/p>\n
The drumbeat quickened in April, when Consumer Reports said its tests showed the school-approved Lunchables contained more sodium than the store varieties. The organization also reported that commercially available Lunchables had more lead compared to ready-made meals made by several other companies.<\/p>\n
Consumer Reports petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ban Lunchables and similar processed meal kits from schools.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Pittsburgh-based Kraft Heinz attributed the decision to pull out of the market served by the National School Lunch Program to a lack of demand. The company described the business impact as \u201cnegligible,\u201d saying sales of the school-designed meals \u201cwere far less than 1% of overall Lunchables sales\u201d during the last academic year.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, we brought two NSLP compliant Lunchables options to schools that had increased protein. While many school administrators were excited to have these options, the demand did not meet our targets,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThis happens occasionally across our broad portfolio, especially as we explore new sales channels. Lunchables products are not available in schools this year and we hope to revisit at a future date.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kraft Heinz Co. produces a wide range of familiar products, including Capri Sun juice pouches, Oscar Meyer hot dogs, Grey Poupon mustard, Kool-Aid, and Philadelphia Cream Cheese.<\/p>\n
Kraft Heinz’s decision to pull out of the school lunch program comes after criticism from nutritionists and advocacy groups, as well as concerns raised by Consumer Reports. The company cited a lack of demand as the reason for its decision, but many are left wondering if the criticism and concerns played a role in the company’s decision.<\/p>\n
A: Kraft Heinz cited a lack of demand as the reason for its decision.<\/p>\n
A: The Center for Science in the Public Interest called having Lunchables in cafeterias \u201ca highly questionable move for school nutrition\u201d that might confuse families into thinking the versions sold at supermarkets were a healthy option.<\/p>\n
A: Consumer Reports found that the school-approved Lunchables contained more sodium than the store varieties and that commercially available Lunchables had more lead compared to ready-made meals made by several other companies.<\/p>\n
A: According to Kraft Heinz, the company hopes to revisit the school lunch program at a future date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kraft Heinz Pulls Out of School Lunch Program Food and beverage manufacturer Kraft Heinz said Tuesday that it no longer is serving the Lunchables meals it created for U.S. schools. Background The company introduced the two packaged meals \u2014 one starring pizza and the other a turkey, cheddar cheese and cracker plate \u2014 at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dining"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/media.nbcmiami.com\/2024\/11\/AP24317837284619.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&resize=1200%2C675&w=1200&resize=1200,675&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2509,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507\/revisions\/2509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}