Lessons Learned from Evaluations of California's School Nutrition Standards

This research contains an assessment of the impact of legislation that established nutrition standards for foods and beverages that compete with reimbursable school meals in California. This study concluded that regulation of competitive foods improved school food environments and student nutritional intake.

On-campus foods and beverages meeting standards increased and noncompliant items decreased following legislation regulating competitive foods. At-home consumption of selected noncompliant foods did not increase. A la carte revenue losses were usually offset by increased meal program participation. Increased food service expenditures outpaced revenue increases.