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Milk, for instance, may be flavored but contain no artificial sweeteners and no more than four grams of sugar per ounce. Water may be flavored but contain no added sugars, sweeteners, artificial sweeteners or caffeine. One hundred percent fruit juice, vegetable juice or a combination of these juices shall contain no added sugars, sweeteners or artificial sweeteners, according to the legislation.
"The Department of Education was supportive of it," said Susan Fiore, nutrition education coordinator in the State Department of Education, referring to the legislation. "We've been trying to work to help schools promote healthy eating as well as physical activity for kids."
"It's bigger than an obesity issue," she said with reference to the catalyst for the legislation, while terming obesity among school children a big epidemic. "The bottom line is healthy kids, no matter what their size."
"Obesity was the driving force behind all this, because it keeps climbing and climbing," she acknowledged. "We worry about the health of all kids. Many normal-weight kids are not healthy. They are not eating food that will keep them healthy in the long run, like fruits and vegetables."
"We really looked at the concept of promoting less processing and more whole, natural foods," she said, with regard to the ban on artificial sweeteners. "Even if kids are drinking diet soda, they're not drinking milk, and they need to drink water."
The vote for the legislation was close, with the final tally in the House 76 to 74, with four state representatives absent, and the vote in the Senate 24 to 8, also with four assemblymen absent.
"I think it had a lot to do with party lines," Ms. Fiore said, noting that the bill came from State Sen. Donald E. Williams, Jr. (D-Brooklyn), who is president pro tempore of the state Senate.
"There was opposition from the soda companies and the Teamsters," she said, noting that the union had argued "there'd be nothing for delivery.
"The soda companies sell juice. They sell water," she said, referring to the new markets the statewide legislation will open up as it decreases others.
The legislation also includes incentives for school districts to apply nutritional standards to food that does not fall within federally assisted programs such as the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, the School Milk Program and the After-School Snack Program, for which the New Milford school district, like others throughout the state, is presently reimbursed.
"There are many other foods at schools that are not reimbursable," she said, citing the sale of hot dogs or hamburgers.
"There are no standards for those foods so now, everything besides the meals will have standards," she said, referring to standards the state Department of Education had worked out for foods within the past two years.
The second part of the legislation gives school districts the option of applying DOE nutritional standards to all food items it sells. "If the school chooses to apply those standards to its food, it will get additional funding," she said, adding that the funding formula is still being calculated.
Ms. Fiore affirmed that the legislation leaves optional the sale of foods that do not meet its nutritional standards in their faculty areas.
"The school could choose to leave it in a faculty lounge," she said.
