Meal Pattern Minute: Soy Yogurt
September 29, 2023
Adding yogurt to the menu provides a good source of calcium, protein and other important nutrients. However, some individuals in your care may not be able to consume dairy due to allergies or intolerances. Or perhaps, you are trying to provide an alternative to yogurt due to a parental preference. When looking for alternative yogurts, you can find many on the market. The one that we will discuss in this Meal Pattern Minute is soy yogurt and whether it is creditable or not in the infant meal pattern and the child and adult meal pattern.
Get the answer in under a minute with Isabel Ramos-Lebron, MS, RDN, LD, as she talks about soy yogurt in the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
Need more information on soy yogurt and determining its creditable status for each meal pattern? Below, you will find key resources to help you figure this out.
First, you will want to review the memorandum, “Crediting Tofu and Soy Yogurt Products in the School Meal Programs and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.”
This memorandum informs state agencies how to credit tofu and soy yogurt products as a meat/meat alternate component in meal planning. Additionally, ½ cup (4.0 fluid ounces) of soy yogurt is creditable as 1.0 ounce equivalent meat alternate. This is consistent with the crediting of dairy yogurt while allowing schools, centers, and homes to provide a non-dairy alternative.
Next, you will want to check the Crediting Handbook for the Child and Adult Care Food Program to see if there is any additional information you need to know about serving soy yogurt. Under the “Questions and Answers about Meats/Meat Alternates” section you will find more information on this product, especially about the sugar limit and if it applies to soy yogurt.
Yogurt, including soy yogurt, is a great source of calcium, protein, vitamin A, vitamin D, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, riboflavin, and vitamin B-12. However, some yogurt products have significantly more sugar than others. To promote healthy habits from the start, the updated meal patterns limit the amount of total sugars allowed in creditable yogurt and soy yogurts. Yogurt or soy yogurt may contain up to 23 grams of sugar per 6 ounces. As a reminder, soy yogurt is not creditable in the infant meal pattern.
Check out this resource, “Is Your Yogurt CACFP Creditable?”, to help you determine if the soy yogurt you plan to serve meets the CACFP sugar limits.
You have now reviewed that soy yogurt is creditable for the CACFP child and adult meal pattern but have not confirmed if soy yogurt is creditable in the infant meal pattern. Review “Feeding Infants in the Child and Adult Care Food Program” under “Appendix F: Infant Foods List” to find the answer. As you will see, soy yogurt is not creditable in a reimbursable infant meal.
You can substitute cow’s milk-based yogurt for soy yogurt in many recipes. Try one of these out!
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