Soyfoods
The Illinois Center for Soy Foods is working to promote soyfood consumption by connecting the Checkoff Board with food scientists and nutritionists. Barbara Klein, director for the center, which is based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, says this MRA area is first focused on promoting soy consumption in school lunches. Klein says goals include fighting childhood obesity and educating students, parents, teachers, and food manufacturers and management companies about the nutritional value and ease of incorporating soy into school lunches. For more information about the center, visit www.soyfoodsillinois.uiuc.edu.
Reducing the fat and cholesterol contents of foods targeted at children is one of the goals of the ISoy: A Better School Lunch project. Collaborators will help school foodservice managers incorporate soy into school lunches to reduce fat, cholesterol, and calories. The pilot program will be conducted in the Champaign, Decatur, Pekin, Murphysboro, and Ford Heights school districts this fall. Children will be served soy-enhanced entrées. The amount they eat will be compared to traditional entrée consumption to predict the acceptability of such offerings as spaghetti with soy-enhanced meat sauce, chili with soy, chix nuggets made with soy, and soy-enhanced beef ravioli.
The economic impact of using soy-enhanced products will be also assessed. In addition, foodservice managers, teachers, parents, and children will learn about the benefits of a healthful diet that contains soyfoods. Foodservice managers will receive nutrition information as well as tips for increasing the amounts of soy in the foods they serve. An educational program focused on soy and based on the nationally recognized Food is Elementary curriculum will be developed for the classroom. The ISoy program is supported by the Checkoff and Archer Daniels Midland Company and administered through the Illinois Center for Soy Foods.