Food and beverage companies have improved their K–12 products by reducing sodium and increasing whole grains. Some have also taken steps to reduce added sugars and remove harmful low-calorie sweeteners and synthetic dyes. Despite this, many snacks and beverages sold in schools are still too high in added sugars and can contain harmful low-calorie sweeteners and synthetic dyes.
In Smart Snacks: Graded, the Center for Science in the Public Interest assessed the nutritional quality of 623 single-serve, individually packaged, Smart Snacks-compliant foods and beverages to determine if they meet additional science-based standards for added sugars, low-calorie sweeteners, and synthetic dyes.
View the resource below for some examples of the worst offending products from the report, published in October 2023, alongside better alternatives sold by the same company at the time of data collection. It’s time for companies to offer better Smart Snacks in schools!
White flour or starch dressed up with a smidgen of veggies, olive oil, or nuts—some crackers aren’t all they’re, um, cracked up to be. Here’s how to find the best...plus a few of our faves(at right). Scroll downto see how to decode cracker claims.
In search of a healthy savory snack? Here are six. They’re actual beans, vegetables, nuts, or intact whole grains instead of fried potatoes or white flour.
“Protein from real food,” “20+ superfoods,” “No B.S.,“ promise some bars. Fact: No bar can replace real superfoods like crunchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fresh or frozen fruit.
Have we mentioned that nothing beats fresh fruit or vegetables for a healthy snack? But plenty of packaged snacks that promise “real” veggies offer little of them. And companies are still using fruit, protein, beans, and whole-grain claims to catch your eye. Here are six snacks that only look healthy...plus eight that really are.
What makes your product stand out? Surely, your marketing department can think of something. You could add veggies, almond butter, probiotics, or protein...or take away something like grain or gluten. So what if it doesn’t actually make the food much healthier, as long as you make the sale? Thanks to the hype, these items look healthier than they are.
The bar aisle is buzzing. Nut, nut butter, egg white, probiotic, protein, "smoothie," fruit, and even "fat" bars are competing with old standbys like granola and cereal bars.
Attention, shoppers: Fresh fruit, crunchy veggies, unsweetened yogurt, nuts, and other whole foods still beat bars any day. But if you want a bar that's more real food than candy, read on.
Our environment is saturated in calories—cheap, tempting, unnecessary calories. You can’t run errands without dealing with a constant barrage of junk foods. Human brains aren’t designed to say no to them, though they do our health no favors.
