DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997                TAG: 9703040305

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A10  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   61 lines

YOGURT WILL BE NEW MEAT SUBSTITUTE AT SCHOOLS

Kids who have a beef with school menus are getting a new alternative with the government's blessings: yogurt for lunch.

Over strenuous objections of the cattle industry, the Agriculture Department has decided to allow yogurt as a meat substitute in the nation's school lunchrooms.

School food service officials were told of the decision this weekend by Mary Ann Keeffe, USDA's acting undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services.

School officials had predicted yogurt would be a hit with kids. Child-care providers and the food industry have been pressing for the change for at least 15 years, but the Agriculture Department balked out of concerns about the lack of iron and other nutrients in yogurt.

The department already allows some meat substitutes, including cheese, eggs and peanut butter.

Yogurt would add variety to lunches, it's easy for children to digest and it requires no preparation, proponents said. Under the new rule, four ounces of yogurt may substitute for an ounce of meat.

``The USDA is confirming what school cafeteria workers have always known. Namely that greater choices at lunchtime mean far less food tossed away, uneaten, often at taxpayer expense,'' said Joe Rutledge, a vice president of General Mills Inc., maker of Yoplait and Colombo yogurt.

HAMPTON ROADS STUDENTS SHOULDN'T expect to be subbing out hamburgers for yogurt this week though. Throwing something on the menu in local schools takes time.

Nancy Whalen, nutrition and training coordinator for Virginia Beach schools, says that the school district has six-week cycles of menus, and usually has a taste test before putting something new on the menu. The district has about 20 taste tests a year with students, teachers and parents participating.

``We offer yogurt a la carte now,'' Whalen said. While students do buy yogurt, ``it's not as popular as ice cream,'' she said. ``I'm not sure how they would react to it as a substitute for meat.''

Norma Frye, supervisor of food services in Suffolk, said she also runs food items past a panel of student taste testers before putting something new on the menu. She said the district used to have yogurt a la carte, but dropped it. ``It was popular for a while,'' she said, ``But then its popularity died off.''

But if students express new interest in it, she'll include it in another taste test.

SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAMS, which feed 25 million children nationwide, are a huge market for the food industry. The federal government subsidizes the cost of the meals and sets requirements for their nutrition and content.

The National Cattleman's Beef Association argued that there already were enough meat substitutes in school lunches. The USDA provided schools with 146 million pounds of beef during the 1995-96 school year.

``We remain committed to the fact that beef offers more nutrients than yogurt does,'' said Alisa Harrison, a spokeswoman for the beef industry group. MEMO: The Associated Press and staff writer Elizabeth Simpson

contributed to this report.

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