Meal Pattern Minute: Flavored Milk
January 17, 2025
Fluid milk is a required meal component when serving breakfast, lunch, or supper. If serving snacks, you must serve two of the five meal components which could include fluid milk. For each age group, there are specific requirements of what type of milk to serve, for example, one-year-olds must be served unflavored whole milk, two- to five-year-olds must be served unflavored fat-free or low-fat milk, and children ages six and older can be served flavored or unflavored fat-free or low-fat milk. As a Child and Adult Care Food Program operator, you know that there are sugar limits for certain foods in the CACFP such as yogurt and breakfast cereals, but are there sugar limits when it comes to serving flavored milks to those children who are age six or older?
Listen to this Meal Pattern Minute as Isabel Ramos-Lebron, MS, RDN, LD, answers this question.
Review the resources below to help guide you in serving milk to the age groups you are serving.
- CACFP Best Practices
- Crediting Fluid Milk Tip Sheet
- Milk in the CACFP
- Nutrition Requirements for Fluid Milk and Fluid Milk Substitutions in the Child and Adult Care Food Program, Questions and Answers
- This memorandum details the nutrition requirements for fluid milk and fluid milk substitutes in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and includes a series of frequently asked questions and answers.
- Serving Milk in the CACFP
- This free webinar walks the audience through Team Nutrition’s “Serving Milk in the CACFP” training worksheet and lets audience select milk for various age groups to meet meal pattern requirements.
- Test your knowledge on fluid milk by taking the USDA Team Nutrition’s Milk in the CACFP Quiz.
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