It’s tough being a critic, especially when it comes to judging food.
Toledo Public Schools students should know. On Wednesday, 14 Keyser Elementary students were given the title of food critic as they weighed in on more than 10 items — hot foods and snacks — that their peers could be served next fall.
Their assessments of “liked it” or “didn’t like it” will be combined with the ratings from children at nine other schools in the district who also participated in taste tests.
Students shouted out “delicious,” “full of flavor,” “loved that,” and, occasionally, “nasty,” when asked about the samples they were served.
IN PICTURES: TPS taste tests
The district has been adding kid-approved foods to its menu for the past four years.
Reynald Debroas, TPS food-service director, said he will kitchen-test food items that receive popular ratings from the student food testers. Those that pass the recipe test could begin appearing in school cafeterias next fall.
The district’s food service department serves about 13,000 lunches per day or 2.3 million a year at 54 TPS schools.
Casmeria Corvit, 13, and Tamyla Tiggs, 13, represented the seventh grade in Wednesday’s test. Both said they felt the responsibility to choose satisfying snacks and meal items for their classmates.
Although the school lunch meals are “sometimes good and sometimes not” so good, Casmeria said, school food has been improving each year. The offerings from three vendors would help the district continue the trend of improvement, she said.
The critics for the day were greeted with a plate of bite-sized snacks, including Craisins in strawberry, cherry, or orange flavors; Belly Bears graham crackers in chocolate or honey graham flavors, and Cruncher’s bars in lemon or triple berry.
“We discern foods based on trends and new ideas manufacturers have or new products to bring in the market,” said Jason Mortus, Gordon Food Service customer development specialist.
Foods also meet standards of the National School Lunch Program, outlined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. The federal guidelines emphasize the use of ingredients such as whole grains, 100 percent fruit juice, and real mozzarella cheese.
After snacks came the main event, three types of chicken provided by food service firm Waypoint of Cincinnati, which represents Tyson Foods. Children sampled breaded chicken nuggets, breaded chicken fries, and grilled all-white meat chicken nuggets.
“I ate the sticks because they look like fries,” said second-grader Myon Thomas, 8.
Jeff Crowe, an account executive at Ritchie Marketing, which serves Ohio and nearby states, delivered a brief pitch on three pizza options: a turkey pepperoni pizza square, turkey ham and cheese calzone, and turkey pepperoni calzone.
“The ham and cheese pocket has a nice stretch to it” from the 100 percent mozzarella cheese, he told the student panel.
He said that the commodity bank food items provided to schools by the USDA, such as cheese and whole chickens, are diverted to manufacturers who in turn use the ingredients to produce school food products. The program reduces the cost of the final product. For example, the cheese used in the pizza could reduce TPS’ cost by 20 percent per serving.
Fourth and fifth graders Nicholas Kollman, 10, Ekxania Davis, 9, Antonio Solis, 10, and Kyamerah Hughes, 10, discussed which foods they liked the best.
Most of them were won over by the last snack, the SideKicks Strawberry Mango cups, an icy dessert.
Contact Natalie Trusso Cafarello at: 419-724-6133, or ntrusso@theblade.com, or on Twitter @natalietrusso.
First Published March 10, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
