Standardized Recipes in School Meals

Happy National School Lunch Week! Today, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service announced the award of over $4.1 million in Team Nutrition Training Grants to State agencies for the development of standardized recipes for use in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. Great recipes are essential for producing tasty foods students want to eat. Standardizing those recipes also helps you:

• Control food costs
• Prevent food waste and shortages on the serving line
• Ensure students get the right amounts of foods

What is a Standardized Recipe?  A standardized recipe produces the same taste and number of servings each time it is prepared. The USDA recipe standardization process verifies recipe results at least three times, evaluates the recipes using taste tests and other methods, and adjusts the recipes for yield quantities of 50 and 100 servings.

Components of a Standardized Recipe

In addition to ingredients and preparation instructions, some of the important information on a USDA standardized recipe includes:

1. Crediting Information- Indicates how the recipe counts towards meal pattern requirements.
2. Marketing Guide- Gives the purchase quantities for ingredients that have a prepreparation loss or gain prior to use in a recipe. For example, a recipe that has 11 ounces of diced red peppers listed as an ingredient, may include information in the marketing guide showing that 14 ounces, or just under one pound, of fresh red bell peppers will trim and dice to 11 ounces.
3. Nutrition Information- Tells the nutrients per serving, including calories, saturated fat, and sodium.
4. Critical Control Points (CCPs)- Gives the time and temperature requirements for preparing, holding, serving, and storing safely.

Where Can Schools Find Standardized Recipes?  USDA standardized recipes are available at the Institute for Child Nutrition’s Child Nutrition Recipe Box. Wondering where to start? These are the five most downloaded school lunch recipes for the year: Spaghetti and Meat Sauce Chicken Alfredo With a Twist Pizza Burger Macaroni and Cheese Bean Burrito Bowl

State agencies that administer the National School Lunch Program will have another opportunity to apply for a FY 2021 Team Nutrition Training Grant for School Meal Recipe development in January 2021. Watch for updates on Grants.gov and @TeamNutrition.