Chile Brings Milk Back to Schools

More than 100 students participated in a school activity held on September 30 in Chile that linked dairy products with exercise. The event presented milk as part of everyday eating rather than only as a subject of nutritional messaging.

The pupils joined sports activities and received prizes, mostly small boxes of milk. The organisers used the occasion to introduce children to dairy consumption through a practical school experience.

The initiative took place as Chile’s dairy industry examines changes in consumers’ food choices. Fedeleche, the federation representing dairy producers and cooperatives, has called for renewed information about milk’s nutritional composition as new food trends and competing products seek to occupy the same consumption occasions.

According to Fedeleche’s position, food education should help consumers compare alternatives using clear information based on evidence. The organisation has also linked schools with the longer-term development of eating habits, describing childhood as a period in which preferences and routines are formed.

School programmes can expose children to milk, yoghurt and cheese while broadening their knowledge of different foods. The material associated with the event also noted that promotion of dairy products should remain part of a balanced diet, rather than assigning one product responsibility for the nutritional quality of the diet as a whole.

Fedeleche president Marcos Winkler wrote that keeping milk in children’s diets involved maintaining recognition of its nutritional value and strengthening links among producers, consumers and schools. The event was organised by the Sociedad Promotora de Productos Lácteos. The source was Diario Lechero, which reported on Winkler’s column and the school celebration.