Schools to offer healthier snacks

October 07, 2006|Karen Matthews, Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Snacks sold in schools will have less fat, sugar, and salt under the latest crackdown on junk food won by Bill Clinton.

Just five months after a similar agreement targeting the sale of sodas in schools, the former president and the American Heart Association announced a deal yesterday with several major food companies to make school snacks healthier -- the latest assault on the childhood obesity epidemic.

``This is voluntary," Clinton said. ``They don't have to do it. But they recognize the challenge we face, and they are helping us face the first step."

Clinton said the obesity problem is hurting the economy by contributing to high health care costs.

The agreement with Kraft Foods Inc., Mars Inc., Campbell Soup Co., Groupe Danone SA, and PepsiCo Inc. sets guidelines for fat, sugar, sodium, and calories for snack foods sold in school vending machines, stores, and snack bars. Those companies make M&M's, yogurt, granola bars, potato chips, candy bars, and soups.

Under the guidelines, most foods won't be permitted to derive more than 35 percent of their calories from fat and more than 10 percent from saturated fat. There will be a limit of 35 percent for sugar content by weight.

An example of a snack that would be banned is the Snickers candy bar, which has 280 calories, 130 of them from fat. The candy bar has 30 grams of sugar out of 58.7 total grams.

``By working with schools and industry to implement these guidelines, we are helping to give parents peace of mind," said Dr. Raymond Gibbons, president of the heart association.

The William J. Clinton Foundation teamed up with the heart association to form the Alliance for a Healthier Generation in 2005. The alliance was formed to combat childhood obesity.