Trump signs bill returning whole milk to US school lunches | Donald Trump
Whole milk is returning to school cafeterias across the country after Donald Trump signed a bill Wednesday that lifts Obama-era restrictions on high-fat milk options.
Non-dairy beverages such as fortified soy milk may also be on the menu in the coming months, after Congress passed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act in the fall.
The action allows schools participating in the National School Lunch Program to offer whole and 2% fat milk in addition to fat-free and low-fat products, which have been required since 2012.
“Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, whole milk is a great thing,” Trump said at the White House signing ceremony attended by lawmakers, dairy farmers and their children.
The law also allows schools to offer dairy-free milk that meets nutritional standards for milk, and requires schools to offer a dairy-free milk alternative if children provide a note not only from their doctor but also from their parents stating that they have a dietary restriction.
The signing comes just days after the release of the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which emphasize the consumption of full-fat dairy products as part of a healthy diet. In previous editions, it was recommended that consumers over 2 years of age should consume low-fat or fat-free dairy products.
Earlier this week, the agriculture department sent out a social media post showing Trump with a glass of milk and a “milk moustache” and saying “Drink Whole Milk.”
The change could go into effect this fall, but school nutrition and dairy industry officials said it may take longer for some schools to gauge demand for full-fat dairy products and adjust their supply chains.
Long sought by the dairy industry, the return of whole and 2% milk to school lunches reverses provisions of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by former First Lady Michelle Obama. The law, enacted more than a dozen years ago, aimed to slow obesity and improve health by reducing children’s consumption of saturated fat and the calories in high-fat milk.
Nutritionists, lawmakers and the dairy industry have argued that whole milk is a delicious, nutritious beverage that has been unfairly maligned, with some studies suggesting that children who drink it are less likely to develop obesity than those who drink lower-fat options. Critics also said that many children do not like the taste of low-fat milk and do not drink it, leading to nutritional deficiencies and food waste.
The new rules will change the meals served to the nearly 30 million students enrolled in the National School Lunch Program.
Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr described the new law as a “long overdue correction to school nutrition policy”. Agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said it corrected Michelle Obama’s “short-sighted campaign to ditch whole milk.”
Schools will now be required to offer students a range of fluid milk options, which may include flavored and unflavored organic or conventional whole milk, 2%, 1% and lactose-free milk, as well as non-dairy options that meet nutritional standards.
The new dietary rules call for “full cream dairy products with no added sugar”, which will exclude chocolate and strawberry-flavoured milks, which were allowed under a recent update to school meal standards. Agriculture officials will need to turn this recommendation into specific requirements for schools to eliminate flavored milks.
The new law exempts dairy fat from being considered part of federal requirements that, on average, saturated fats make up less than 10% of calories in school meals.
Dr Dariush Mozaffarian of Tufts University, a leading nutritionist, said there was “no meaningful benefit” in choosing low-fat dairy over high-fat dairy. He added that the saturated fatty acids in dairy products have a different composition than other fats, such as beef fat, and also have different beneficial compounds that could compensate for theoretical harms.
“The saturated fat in dairy products has not been linked to any adverse health outcomes,” Mozaffarian said in an interview.
Studies have shown that changes to the federal nutrition program after the passage of the Obama-era law slowed the rise of obesity among U.S. children, including teenagers.
But some nutritionists point to new research that suggests children who drink whole milk may be less likely to be overweight or develop obesity than children who drink low-fat milk. A 2020 review of 28 studies suggested that the risk was 40% lower in children who drank whole milk, but the authors noted that they could not say whether milk consumption was the cause.
