As a part of the primary section of the invoice, eating places in Montgomery County can be required to supply a wholesome beverage choice to their youngest clients.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — Eating places in Montgomery County can be required by legislation to supply a minimum of one wholesome meal choice for kids beginning Wednesday.

Invoice 1-22 handed in March 2022 and requires youngsters’s meals be supplied by meals service amenities to incorporate sure wholesome meals and beverage choices.

As a part of the primary section of the invoice, eating places in Montgomery County can be required to supply a wholesome beverage choice to their youngest clients. The second section would require a wholesome meal choice six months later. 

Legislators outline a “youngsters’s meal” within the invoice as a method of a mixture of meals gadgets or a mixture of meals gadgets and a drink {that a} restaurant sells as a unit or on a youngsters’s menu or in any other case presents eaten primarily by youngsters. 

Eating places may have a number of choices to supply youngsters, together with water or glowing water that has no favors or carbonation, eight ounces of unflavored 1% milk, or a non-dairy equal, 100% fruit or vegetable juice. Not one of the drink choices are allowed to have added pure or synthetic sweeteners. 

In line with the invoice, a wholesome meal choice should adhere to a number of necessities. The meal should comprise not more than:

  • 600 Energy
  • 700 Milligrams of sodium
  • 35% Of energy from whole sugars
  • 35% Of energy from fats
  • 10% Of energy from saturated fats
  • 0.5 Grams of trans fats

“Childhood weight problems stays a longstanding downside in our nation and the speed continues to climb impacting our youngsters’s well being and high quality of life. Particularly in a time when our busy existence have extra households consuming out, it’s crucial that as a County we encourage wholesome choices in our youngsters’s meals,” mentioned Councilmember Rice, who serves as chair of the Council’s Schooling Committee and as a member of the Well being and Human Companies Committee after the invoice handed in 2022. “I applaud the numerous eating places, giant and small, in our neighborhood which might be already offering more healthy picks. This invoice lays out a minimal threshold over an prolonged interval to make sure that our youngsters have a more healthy beverage and meal choice accessible to them, all so as to promote extra healthful consuming habits all through their lives.”  

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