SMART SNACK SCHOOL STANDARDS CASE STUDY #2: MUNCHIES MUNCH MIX SNACK MIX

Information updated August 2024

Alliance for a Healthier Generation was founded by the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation in 2005. The admirable goals are to empower kids to develop lifelong healthy habits, including healthy eating.

Smart Snacks Standards: One of the elements which emerged from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation is something called the ‘Smart Snacks Standards’ for schools K-12.

The Smart Snacks Standards are designed to approve only certain snacks and entrées for Schools if they meet specific ingredient criteria which was designed in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Designed to promote healthy eating among U.S. School children K-12, Government standards for Smart Snacks are unwittingly encouraging the creation and availability of less healthy food products for all U.S. school children.

Sources for Standards: Alliance for a Healthier Generation 8/24; American Heart Association 2024

Let’s take a close look at PepsiCo-owned Frito-Lay Munchies Munch Mix Snack Mix which is a Smart Snack approved item for U.S. Schools. (Sources: PepsiCo School Source Web site 8/24)

PEPSICO APPLIES FOR SMART SNACK APPROVAL: Seen below, PepsiCo filled out the required form to substantiate that Munchies Mix meets the “Whole Grain-Rich Criteria”.

Following is the “Smart Snacks Product Calculator” document which approves Munchies Munch Mix Snack Mix as a Smart Snack. With Whole Oat Flour is the first ingredient in this PepsiCo snack, the approval states, “Your whole grain product meets all nutrient standards for entrées or snack foods”.

THE INGREDIENTS: This Munchies Snack Mix is Smart Snack Compliant . . . even though it contains 10 added Saccharides — including Corn Syrup — and has multiple ingredients we would never use at home to make snacks including 3 ingredients banned at Whole Foods >> MSG (Monosodium Glutamate), Artificial Color and Artificial Flavors.

Q: How is this happening?

A: Because no one is looking at how the well-intended — but obviously incomplete — guidelines for Smart Snacks have manifested themselves in actual products which U.S. Kids are eating with the notion they have been vetted by adults and are “Smart” for them to consume.

Correction: No one was looking . . . until now.

See what’s in another Smart Snack Approved item >> Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts:

Discover food + beverages whose ingredients are Closest To Homemade in 275+ categories >> manufactured food + beverages whose ingredients are closest to those we would use at home to make the item. Neither money nor products are ever accepted to appear on the Closest To Homemade list.

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