Meal Pattern Minute: Serving Juice and Milk
July 7, 2023
Developing a variable snack menu in the Child and Adult Care Food Program can be fun but also sometimes a challenge. What 2 food components can you pair together to make a snack and still credit in the CACFP? You know that you can serve and credit apple slices and fluid milk at a snack, but can you credit full-strength apple juice and fluid milk in the same snack? Isn’t it the same thing?
Find out if you can credit full-strength juice and milk in the same snack with Isabel Ramos-Lebron, MS, RDN, LD, in this Meal Pattern Minute.
In the Crediting Handbook for the CACFP, there is guidance on snacks when it comes to full-strength juice and milk.
- Full-strength 100% fruit and vegetable juice may count toward the entire fruits or vegetables component at 1 meal per day, including snack.* However, when fluid milk is served as 1 of the components at snack, juice cannot credit toward the vegetables or fruits component. Full-strength 100% juice may be fresh, canned, frozen, or reconstituted with water from concentrate and served in either a liquid or frozen state. The name of the full-strength juice as it appears on the label must include the word(s) “juice” or “full-strength juice” or “single-strength juice” or “100% juice” or “reconstituted juice” or “juice from concentrate.”
- *Full-strength juice is not creditable in the CACFP when served to children younger than 12 months.
Try one of these #CACFPCreditable snacks when updating your menu!
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