Yogurt Ruling Alarms Meat Industry

When the nation’s schoolchildren dig into their school lunches this year, they might be scooping up a serving of low-fat strawberry-banana yogurt rather than such traditional cafeteria fare as the sloppy joe.

Yogurt advocates argue that the product is nutritionally correct. But meat interests are working to sideline, if not eliminate, a Department of Agriculture proposal to allow yogurt as a “meat alternative.”

Spurred on by Sen. Larry Pressler, R-S.D., meat producers are mounting a campaign to send the proyogurt proposal to the same dustbin where the ‘80s plan to count ketchup as a vegetable now resides.

“We don’t see yogurt as a main course,” said an aide to Pressler. “One of the concerns of the senator is that the people pushing yogurt are pushing meatless or plant-based diets.”

Philosophically, this is a pork vs. Perrier difference of opinion. Besides worrying that kids won’t get enough iron if they eat less meat, the anti-yogurt lobby fears that the day is coming when government low-fat guidelines will make hamburger patties, Swedish meatballs and pork sausage vanish from school lunch trays.

The good news for the yogurt industry is that after having their product rejected several times by the department because it doesn’t offer certain nutrients, the proposed rule could mean 25 million additional mouths to feed.

“It’s easily served, cost-efficient and nutritious,” said Leslie G. Sarasin, president of the National Yogurt Association. “This is not proposed as a substitute for meat. We never implied meat should not be offered.”

The American Dietetic Association supports the change.