Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025
Key claim: The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 (P.L. 119-69) allows schools in the National School Lunch Program to offer whole and reduced-fat flavored and unflavored milk, excludes fluid-milk fat from saturated-fat compliance calculations, expands nutritionally equivalent nondairy beverages, lets parents request milk substitutes, and mandates annual food-allergy training for school food-service staff.
Abstract
(S222 · 119th Congress) Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 This act revises requirements for milk provided by the National School Lunch Program of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to allow schools to offer students whole and reduced-fat milk. The act also requires that local school food service personnel receive annual training and certification on food allergies. The act permits schools to offer students whole, reduced-fat (2%), low-fat (1%), and fat-free flavored and unflavored milk. The milk that is offered may be organic or nonorganic. Currently, USDA regulations require milk to be fat-free or low-fat and allow milk to be flavored or unflavored. The act also removes the requirement that schools participating in the program must provide milk that is consistent with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The act also expands the nondairy beverages that are included in the program by allowing schools to offer all students nondairy beverages that are nutritionally equivalent to fluid milk and that meet nutritional standards established by USDA. Further, schools currently must provide a substitute for fluid milk, on receipt of a written statement from a licensed physician, for students whose disability restricts their diet. Under the act, a parent or legal guardian may also provide the written statement. In addition, the act excludes fluid milk from the saturated fat content calculation for school meals. Currently, schools participating in the program must provide meals that meet certain nutrition requirements; USDA regulations require that the average saturated fat content of the meals offered must be less than 10% of the total calories. Under the act, milk fat included in any fluid milk provided by the program must not be considered saturated fat for the purposes of measuring compliance with USDA regulations. Finally, the program’s mandatory training and certification for local school food service personnel must include Latest action (2026-01-14): Became Public Law No: 119-69.
Why this matters
This enacted law is the first substantive statutory rollback of the post-2010 low-fat milk mandate in the National School Lunch Program, directly affecting what ~30 million children are served and creating new demand signals for whole-milk dairy producers. By excluding fluid-milk fat from saturated-fat compliance math, it also carves out a specific exception from Dietary Guidelines-linked meal standards, setting a precedent for future statutory overrides of USDA nutrition rules. The parent-substitution and allergy-training provisions expand school food-service obligations around nondairy and allergen accommodations.