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      Meal Pattern Information

      Table of Contents

      In This Article

      Meal Pattern To-Do List

      As the meal pattern changes and evolves over time, review the following items periodically to ensure compliance:

      1. Keep Minute Menu HX updated. See Install & Upgrade Minute Menu HX.
      2. Set staff permissions for the food tool. See Manage User Permissions.
      3. Mark appropriate foods as whole grain-rich. See Mark Whole Grain-Rich Foods.
      4. Print the food list report and update your food list, as needed. See Food List Report and Manage Your Food List.
      5. Update master menus and all other menu plans, such as Cycle Menus and EZ Menus. See Manage Menus.
      6. Review your preferences. See Set Preferences.

       

      Breastfeeding Infants

      Daycare centers should record meals for infants that are breastfed by their mother on-site the same way that they record foods for children who receive breast milk from a bottle. They must record the breast milk option on the food list.

      Per the USDA: 

      ”While centers and day care homes must document what foods an infant is served, there is no Federal requirement to document the delivery method for breast milk (e.g., if it was served in a bottle by the day care provider or if the mother breastfed on-site).” 

      (CACFP 06-2017)

      There is no reason (unless your state has instructed otherwise in writing) to identify whether or not the child was fed from the breast or the bottle. Identifying the type/brand of cup, bottle, plate, utensil, flatware, etc. has never been a requirement of the CACFP.

      At this time, we are not aware of any state that has implemented this additional paperwork requirement.  If your state agency attempts to require documentation of which children were breastfed on-site, we encourage you to use this as an opportunity to discuss the concern that prompted the requirement.  This could be an opportunity to work with your state agency to reduce paperwork burden and focus attention on meeting the true requirements of the program.

       

      Flavored Milk

      Flavored milk is only allowed for children six (6) years-old and up. However, at this time, there is no edit check in Minute Menu HX that identifies when flavored milk is served to children age four (4) and younger. 

      We strongly advise that you remove flavored milk from your list entirely. For more information, see Remove Foods. If flavored milk is not removed, this edit check will need to be performed manually.

       

      Meal Pattern Edit Checks and Options

      There are several preferences that mange updated meal pattern checks in Minute Menu HX. This allows sponsors to adjust the behavior of the edit checks when advised to do so by their state agency. It is best practice to leave these policies set as they are, unless your state agency has advised to continue paying for meals.

      • Preference Q.008: This preference determines the behavior of the whole grain edit check. You can set this policy to warn, disallow, or ignore. All sponsors are set to disallow by default.

      • Preference Q.011: This policy determines the behavior of the edit check for juice served more than once per day. You can set this policy to warn or disallow. All sponsors are set to disallow by default.

      • Preference Q.012: This policy determines the behavior of the edit check for meat served more than three times per week at breakfast.  You can set this policy to warn or disallow.  By default, all Sponsors will be set to disallow.

      Any warnings or disallowances generated by the edit checks referenced above are visible on the Provider Error Letter.  Use caution when changing your policy settings, as they impact the results of claims processing. We recommend that you do not change these policies mid-month (i.e. processing late claims vs. on-time claims under different policy settings).

      We do not save the complete list of policy settings applied to an individual claim. So, if you change the policies inside a claim month, make your own notes of what you changed and when so you can look back at those claims in the future.

       

      Shelf-Stable Dried/Semi-Dried Meat

      The USDA has updated CACFP food crediting guidelines to allow shelf-stable, dried, and semi-dried meat, poultry, and seafood snacks to be credited toward the meat component in reimbursable meals. In addition, the updated guidelines also allow program participants to credit the following food items:

      • Coconut

      • Hominy

      • Popcorn

      • Surimi Seafood

      • Tempeh

      For more information about adding and editing foods, see the following articles: