You don’t have to look far to find scathing indictments of the ultraprocessed food industry. These high-fat, high-salt, high-sugar products — think fast food, prepackaged meals, convenience store snacks — have been linked to more than 30 adverse health outcomes, from heart disease and diabetes to mental health conditions and dementia.
They’re also ever-present in the lives of California schoolchildren. Schools have long relied on processed foods such as frozen pizza, chicken nuggets and chips as part of their standard cafeteria servings, even as many districts have begun to embrace healthier options.
