Nutrient Standard Menu Planning (NSMP) is one of the options available to schools to meet the School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children (SMI) which requires compliance with the recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. NSMP requires that school meals meet a specific nutrient standard for key nutrients based on one-third of the RDA for lunch and one-fourth of the RDA for breakfast. NSMP also requires that school meals comply with the recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans for fat and saturated fat. Under NSMP, the menu is evaluated through the nutrient analysis of all foods offered over a school week to ensure that meals meet the specific standards for key nutrients and recommended levels of fat and saturated fat. Software programs are used to support NSMP and SMI by calculating an accurate nutrient analysis of the menus and recipes served in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP).
School Food Service Software System
The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed specifications for a School Food Service Software System needed to support NSMP. The objectives of the software system are to:
- Adapt advanced data automation technology to streamline, modernize and standardize school food service nutrient analysis;
- Assist schools in implementing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the Recommended Dietary Allowances and achieving the Year 2000 Nutrition Objectives by computing and analyzing the nutritional composition of meals served in the NSLP and SBP.
Purpose of the Software Evaluation Team
The primary purpose of the Software Evaluation Team is to conduct the testing and evaluation of commercially-produced software programs designed for use with school food service. Developers who wish to obtain USDA approval so their program can be used by schools to support NSMP and other SMI requirements, submit their program to USDA.
The Software Evaluation Team consists of the Software Evaluation Coordinator and nutritionists at USDA's Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC) The project is funded through an interagency agreement with USDA's FNS.
The team tests and evaluates these commercially-produced software programs to verify that the specifications and requirements have been met. The primary goal is the calculation of an accurate nutrient analysis of the school meals. Before a program can be approved by USDA, all required functions must be incorporated into and working correctly in the program. The Software Evaluation Team also reports errors, checks the user manual and technical support, and makes recommendations for improvements.
Only the software programs that meet the specifications and requirements may be used by Child Nutrition Program participants to implement Nutrient Standard Menu Planning (NSMP) or conducting analyses to meet School Meals Initiative (SMI) requirements.
For more information on the software evaluation project, please contact:
Software Evaluation Coordinator
Healthy Meals Resource System
Food and Nutrition Information Center
National Agricultural Library
10301 Baltimore Avenue, Suite 105
Beltsville, MD 20705-235
