The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend reducing daily sodium intake. These resources provides tips to help plan menus with lower sodium.
Sodium Reduction
Be Salt Savvy - Cut Back on Sodium (PDF | 1.20 MB)USDA. FNS. Team Nutrition.
Part of the Fact Sheets for Healthier School Meals set. The fact sheets for school foodservice professionals offer strategies for purchasing, preparing, and serving meals consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Under Pressure: Strategies for Sodium Reduction in the School Environment (PDF | 1.83 MB)CDC. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention.
Provides background on sodium in schools and offers a variety of approaches to reducing sodium in the school environment. Case examples accompany most approaches. Resources and references are available at the end of the document.
Salt and Sodium: 10 Tips to Help You Cut Back (PDF | 320 KB)USDA. Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.
Ten general tips for reducing daily sodium intake. From the MyPlate Ten Tips Nutrition Education Series.
Reduce Sodium in School Meals (PDF | 412 KB)Indiana Department of Education.
This two-page handout provides suggestions for limiting high-sodium foods, tips for modifying recipes that use high-sodium ingredients, and a chart of common seasonings to use in place of salt.
Guide for Reducing Salt and Other Sodium Containing Additives in School Meals (PDF | 68 KB)Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Provides tips for a variety of approaches to reducing sodium in meals, including menu planning, purchasing, preparation, and recipe modification. Included information about using salt substitutes.
Culinary Techniques for Healthy School MealsNational Food Service Management Institute.
This series of lessons is designed to help school nutrition teams prepare healthier school meals that appeal to the taste of today's students. Each lesson contains a print and video component.
Fruit and Veggie Quantity Recipe CookbookNH DHHS. Division of Public Health Services. Fruit and Vegetable Program.
This collection of recipes meet the Fruits and Veggies-More Matters recipe criteria, which state that "Each serving of product may contain no more than 480 mg of sodium per serving."
USDA Recipes for SchoolsUSDA. FNS. Team Nutrition.
The updated recipes from the 1988 Quantity Recipes for School Food Service and the 1995 Tool Kit for Healthy School Meals are now available. These recipes have been edited and reflect the changes made in the newest edition of the Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs.
School Meals Annual Training Materials: Reducing Sodium (PPT | 4.69 MB)Alliance for a Healthier Generation.
A guide to reducing the amount of sodium in school meals for foodservice staff.