August of this year is the date for a first progress report on implementation of guidelines for improving the calorie content and nutrition of bottled drinks offered for sale in schools, according to the American Beverage Association (ABA), the trade association for all major bottlers in the United States.

The association offered guidelines for elementary, middle, and high school beverage options last year, as it became clear that legislation limiting such sales was moving to possible enactment in Congress. Since then, says ABA president and CEO Susan Neely, beverage companies have "spent hundreds of hours training their marketing and sales teams about the guidelines. These teams have reached out to school contract partners to educate them."

"Our companies are reformulating products. They are creating new package sizes to meet the smaller portion sizes required in the guidelines. And they are retrofitting vending machines to accommodate the changes in product sizes."

With full implementation of the ABA guidelines more than two years away—August 2009—the beverage makers say they expect the August 2007 report to show "a continued decline in the sale of full-calorie soft drinks in our schools." Sales volume and contract data are currently being gathered from bottlers and schools across the country, the ABA says.

The following are the guidelines proposed by the beverage association for bottled drinks sold in schools:

Elementary School

• Bottled water;
• Up to 8-ounce serving of milk and 100% juice (low fat regular and flavored milk and USDA nutritionally equivalent milk alternatives with up to 150 calories/8 ounces; and 100% juice with no added sweeteners, up to 120 calories/8 ounces, and with at least 10% daily value of three or more vitamins and minerals.

Middle School

• Same as elementary school, except juice and milk can be sold in 10-ounce servings;
• As a practical matter, if middle school and high school students have shared access to areas on a common campus or in common buildings, then the school community has the option to adopt the high school standards.

High School

• Bottled water;
• No- or low-calorie beverages with up to 10 calories/8 ounces (e.g., diet soft drinks, diet and unsweetened teas, fitness waters, low-calorie sports drinks, flavored waters, seltzers);
• Up to 12-ounce servings of milk, light juice, 100% juice and certain other drinks such as: low-fat and no-fat regular and flavored milk and USDA nutritionally equivalent milk alternatives with up to 150 calories/8 ounces; and 100% juice with no added sweeteners, up to 120 calories/8 ounces and at least 10% daily value of three or more vitamins or minerals; and other drink with no more than 66 calories/8 ounces (e.g., light juices and sports drinks;
• At least 50 percent of beverages must be water and no- or low-calorie options.

The beverage association emphasizes that under its proposed guidelines, no full-calorie soft drink products will be offered in any grade.

The American Beverage Association says its guidelines were designed "using nutrition science," including the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005 and the American Heart Association's Dietary Guidelines for Healthy Children and 2006 Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations, "in order to balance children's nutritional needs with the requirement to manage calorie consumption."