Factors affecting the fat content of National School Lunch Program lunches

An analysis of a week's menus from a nationally representative sample of 515 National School Lunch Program schools found that < 5% of schools offer lunches that provide a 5-d average close to the Dietary Guidelines recommendation for fat. This paper examines the factors associated with schools offering meals that, on average, provided different amounts of fat: low (< 32% of food energy from fat), moderate (32-35% fat), high (35-40% fat), and very high (> 40% fat). Schools in which NSLP lunches come close, on average, to meeting the Dietary Guidelines' goal for total fat follow several menu-planning, food-purchasing, and food-preparation practices to reduce the fat content of the school lunches.