title: Food waste in a school nutrition program after implementation of new lunch program guidelines.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the amount of food waste by meal components according to the new National School Lunch Program guidelines among pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students.
  
  
  METHODS
  For 5 consecutive school days in 1 elementary school, the research team collected school lunch trays and separated meal components into bins relative to each food or beverage appearing on the school's daily menu. Bins were weighed in grams and converted to ounces and cups at the end of each lunch period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The researchers examined 304 meals from 1 pre-kindergarten class and 5 kindergarten classes. Of 4,988 oz of food and beverages served, 2,261 oz (45.3%) were wasted during 1 full school week, totaling 141 lb. The greatest amount of food waste was generated from vegetables, the main entree, and milk, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Strategies to reduce food waste in school lunch should be researched and implemented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Development, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT. Electronic address: carmen.byker@montana.edu.
authors.forename: Carmen J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Byker
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
authors.forename: Alisha R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Farris
authors.affiliation: Montgomery County Public Schools, Christiansburg, VA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marcenelle
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA; Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
authors.forename: George C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
authors.forename: Elena L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Serrano
mesh_terms: D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005518:Food Preferences; D005522:Food Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D062409:Lunch; D008612:Menu Planning; D012574:Schools
keywords: National School Lunch Program; children; food waste; nutrition; plate waste