LEWISTOWN — Metz Culinary Management leadership met with the Mifflin County School District Board of Directors on Thursday to discuss whole milk and new dietary guidelines.

Dennis Michaels, district manager for the School and Corporate Dining Divisions of Metz Culinary Management, and Chad Rockovits, division vice president of operations for K-12, led the discussion at the Committee-of-the-Whole meeting.

Rockovits said that Metz has served the district for nearly six years and shared that the current United States Department of Agriculture regulations require milk to be fat-free, skim or low-fat milk with flavors.

He added that whole milk has not been allowed in the past. The new rule allows whole milk to be served alongside the existing options but only during lunch.

Rockovits said the regulation that requires flavored milk to contain less than 10 grams of added sugar has not changed.

“The state of Pennsylvania has yet to comment and give us guidance on how to implement these policies into school districts,” Rockovits said.

Rockovits explained that this lack of guidance is delaying the rollout of whole milk in school lunches. He added that Metz is required to undergo an audit of meals and nutrition.

Michaels said, “The administrative review is held every couple years. It goes over policies, guidelines, goes over meals, food service, meal recording, that whole process. One of the aspects of that is the nutritional analysis.”

This audit and the lack of guidance from the state has delayed the culinary management service’s ability to make the changes in new whole milk and dietary regulations set forth by the federal government.

“Your recipes that you’re having evaluated, do they reflect the change in the food pyramid?” Director Mark Baker asked.

“Our recipes are made to meet those thresholds that are currently approved,” Rockovits said.

The updated food pyramid emphasizes the consumption of protein, dairy and healthy fats as well as vegetables. More information about these new dietary guidelines can be found at www.dietaryguidelines.gov.

Rockovits and Michaels emphasized that implementing the new whole milk regulations and dietary guidelines requires guidance from the state government.

“When you’re doing a whole shift with the food pyramid, it’s going to take years,” Michaels said.

He added that recent guideline changes involving reduced sugar and reduced sodium have taken years to implement.

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Additional information from this meeting will be published in a future edition of The Sentinel.