Grain Ounce Equivalents

Manage Grain Ounce Equivalents

The USDA requires that all grains served be recorded using ounce equivalents instead of standard units of measurement. This requirement applies to both the Bread/Alt and Infant Cereal components. To accommodate this policy, you must enter an ounce equivalent calculation for all Bread/Alt and Infant Cereal foods. This calculation determines the total ounce equivalents present in the food you are entering. This value will inform all quantities calculations performed for Bread/Alt and Infant Cereal foods in KidKare.

Note that there are weight differences between brands of the same food. For example, one slice of bread from Brand A may weigh 28g, but Brand B may weigh 45g. Sites can override your saved calculation to account for these differences so the proper amounts are served, unless you lock the calculation on the food list.

To add an ounce equivalent equation to existing grains on your food list:

1. From the menu to the left, click Foods.

2. Click Food List. The Food List page opens.

3. Filter to the food items to update. There are two ways to do this:

   • If there are breads/grains missing the ounce equivalent calculation,   displays next to those items, and a banner displays at the top of the page. Click the banner to filter to only those breads/grains that are missing the calculation.

   • Click the Bread/Alt tab to filter to breads and/or the Infant Cereal tab to filter to infant cereals. Items missing a calculation have   next to them.

4. Click the item to update. The Edit Food page opens.
   

5. In the Food Quantity Group section:

   1. Click the Grains Group drop-down menu and select the Exhibit A grains group to which this item belongs. You can view Exhibit A here. Note that if you are updating an Infant Cereal, this drop-down menu is locked to Group I (ready-to-eat cereals).
      
      Example: Clara is updating Whole Grain Rotini Pasta in her food list. This is a pasta, so she accesses Exhibit A, and locates the group that contains pasta--which is Group H.
      

1. 1. Click the Serving Size box and enter the standard serving size for this item, and then select the serving unit.. Following our example above, one serving of Whole Grain Rotini Pasta 1/2 cup. Clara enters 0.5 in the Serving Size box and selects Cups (c) in the corresponding drop-down menu.
      

      Click the Serving Weight box and enter the serving weight from the nutrition label in grams or ounces. Then, click the corresponding drop-down menu and select grams (g) or ounces (oz). Once you enter the weight and the weight unit (ounces or grams), KidKare automatically calculates the grain ounce equivalents for one serving of your item.
      
      In our noodles example, the serving weight for Whole Grain Rotini Pasta is 2oz or 56g. Clara can either enter 2 and select ounces (oz), or she can enter 56 and select grams (g). Either one she uses results in 2.00 oz eq per serving of Whole Grain Rotini Pasta.
      
      Grams
      
      
      Ounces
      

   2. Click to lock this calculation and prevent sites from overriding it on the Daily Menu page in KidKare, if needed. Click  to unlock it again.

2. Click Save. Repeat for each food you need to update.