LOUISVILLE, Colo.—A Colorado congressman is waging a campaign that would prevent pizza from being counted as a vegetable in school meals.
U.S. Rep. Jared Polis on Monday announced new legislation that would allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture to implement nutrition standards for pizza.
Polis says the current approach of categorizing pizza as a vegetable because it includes some tomato paste is the wrong approach because pizza also contains sugar, salt, bread and cheese that contains fat.
Last year, Congress defeated a plan by the USDA to set new standards. Companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools were among those lobbying against the changes. The plan had included a proposal to categorize a half-cup of tomato paste as a vegetable. A typical serving of pizza has less than that.
