February 3, 2023
American schoolchildren could be getting school lunches that have less sugar and salt in the future, thanks to new nutrition standards announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday. These are the first school lunch program updates since 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. What’s different this time is a limit on added sugars, starting in the 2025-2026 school year. Limits would at first target high-sugar foods, including sweetened cereals, yogurts and flavored milks…
Not everyone thinks the changes are the answer.
“School meal programs are at a breaking point,” said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the trade group School Nutrition Association, told the Associated Press. “These programs are simply not equipped to meet additional rules.” Courtney Gaine, president of the Sugar Association, expressed concern about the use of sugar substitutes and said the proposal ignores the “many functional roles” sugar plays in food.
Read the full article here: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-02-03/usda-proposes-new-rules-to-cut-sugar-salt-in-school-meals

January 10, 2026
The health secretary’s new dietary guidelines tell parents to cut the added sugar until their kids turn 11. “Misleading rhetoric “declaring war” on and creating unsubstantiated fear about a real ingredient like real sugar will not improve children’s health,” said Courtney Gaine, the association’s president and CEO, in a statement. “Real sugar — which comes […]

December 4, 2025
"Aimee Soller with the Sugar Association was elected president of the Home Baking Association at the advocacy group’s annual meeting and milling industry veterans Robert Harper and Mike Leddige were elected vice presidents for 2026.”

December 2, 2025
“The American Sugarbeet Growers Association will hold its annual meeting Jan. 26-28 in Indian Wells, California. The agenda is full of topics important to the sugar industry and agriculture at large. Among the planned speakers are the following: Dr. Courtney Gaine, Ph.D., president and CEO of The Sugar Association, on “Dynamics in the U.S. Sugar […]
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