Bill Text: NJ S1373 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires boards of education to provide certain nutritional information for food and beverage items offered for sale in school cafeterias.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-11 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Education Committee [S1373 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-S1373-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator LORETTA WEINBERG
District 37 (Bergen)
SYNOPSIS
Requires boards of education to provide certain nutritional information for food and beverage items offered for sale in school cafeterias.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning student nutrition and supplementing chapter 33 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Labeling, Education, and Nutritional Right-to-Know (LEAN) Schools Act."
2. As used in this act, "nutritional information" means the total number of calories, grams of fat, grams of carbohydrates, and grams of sugar, per serving, in a food or beverage item as usually prepared and, as appropriate, an indicator of the presence of any common food allergens identified by the Commissioner of Education pursuant to section 4 of this act.
3. a. A board of education shall post in a conspicuous place in each school cafeteria nutritional information for all food and beverage items available for sale in its cafeterias. The posting shall be accessible to students, parents or guardians of students, and employees of the school district. A board of education shall also display the nutritional information in a clear and conspicuous manner adjacent to each item in the cafeteria.
b. A board of education shall post on the school district website, if such a website exists, nutritional information for all food and beverage items available for sale in its cafeterias. In the event that a school district website does not exist, a board of education shall annually distribute to parents and guardians of students a pamphlet detailing the nutritional information for all food and beverage items available for sale in its cafeterias.
4. The Commissioner of Education, in consultation with the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services, shall identify and publish a list of food and beverage ingredients that may commonly cause an allergic reaction and which shall be labeled in nutritional information provided pursuant to section 3 of this act.
5. Nothing in this act shall prohibit a board of education from providing additional nutritional information for any food or beverage item available for sale in its school cafeterias.
6. This act shall take effect immediately and shall first apply to the 2009-2010 school year.
STATEMENT
This bill establishes the "Labeling, Education, and Nutritional Right-to-Know (LEAN) Schools Act." Under the bill, each board of education is required to post in each school cafeteria and on the school district website nutritional information for all food and beverage items available for sale in its cafeterias. In the event that a school district website does not exist, a board of education must annually distribute to parents and guardians of students a pamphlet detailing the nutritional information for all food and beverage items available for sale in its cafeterias. The board of education is also required to display the nutritional information in the school cafeteria in a clear and conspicuous manner adjacent to the item.
Under the bill, the Commissioner of Education is required to identify and publish a list of food and beverage ingredients that may commonly cause an allergic reaction. This list is to be used by boards of education when preparing their nutritional information so that students and other consumers of school cafeteria food can be alerted to the presence of certain food allergens.
"Nutritional information" is defined in the bill as the total number of calories, grams of fat, grams of carbohydrates, and grams of sugar, per serving, in a food or beverage item as usually prepared and, as appropriate, an indicator of the presence of certain food allergens.
