Chocolate milk, and other kid-favorite flavored milks, will have less calories and sugar. According to Reuters, the Milk Processor Education Program – or MilkPEP – said on Monday that flavored milk will contain fewer than 150 calories and 22 grams of total sugar on average this school year.
MilkPEP runs the National Milk Mustache "got milk?" Campaign. It is deemed a positive step for a product that already provides calcium, vitamin D and potassium, which is critical for children's diet and development. Milk is the number one food source in America for these essential nutrients, reports Reuters.
The reduction in calories is the result of a five-year process of industry reformulations aiming to, according to MilkPEP, “provide nutritious new products with the same great taste kids love.”
MilkPEP CEO Vivien Godfrey told Reuters, “There are a lot of kids that don't want to drink plain white milk; they really love drinking flavored milk and that's very important for the essential nutrients in milk. It's a happy balance between some added sugars but making sure that the kids actually drink the milk as opposed to taking the white milk on the lunch line and not in fact drinking it.”