WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Institute of Medicine has recommended to the U.S. Department of Agriculture that fresh white potatoes be allowed to be purchased through the Women, Infants and Children’s special supplemental nutrition program, according to a report released Tuesday by the institute.
The Maine Potato Board and members of Maine’s congressional delegation applauded the decision, citing the potato’s nutritional benefits and the longtime efforts to have the root vegetable included in the WIC program.
“For years our industry has urged the USDA to utilize current information regarding the special nutritional needs of low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and infants and children up to 5 years of age who are at nutritional risk. [Tuesday’s] announcement underwrites what we have said for years. It’s great news,” said Don Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board, in the board’s news release.
U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King have been working to allow the fresh white potato to be among the vegetables allowed to be purchased in that program. It was the only vegetable excluded until Collins, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, successfully secured a provision in December in the 2015 federal funding bill that allowed families using the WIC program to purchase fresh white potatoes.
“As I have said all along, USDA’s decision ought to be driven by nutritional facts and the latest, accurate food science. In that kind of review, the fresh, white potato wins, hands down,” Collins said in a prepared statement issued Tuesday. She indicated she has argued for years that USDA used antiquated rules based on outdated, 20-year-old consumption data when it banned potatoes from the WIC program.
The updated 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend five to six cups per week of a certain class of vegetable that includes the white potato, for women with a daily caloric intake of 1,800 to 2,400 calories. The recommendation reflects an increase of two to three cups per week from the 2005 guidelines.
The budget provision announced by Collins in December also required USDA to begin the next scheduled regular review of the WIC food package, including an evaluation of the nutrient value of all vegetables, to determine the long-term inclusion or exclusion of any fresh fruit or vegetable.
“This study further confirms what we have known and consistently advocated for over the years — that fresh, white potatoes are indeed a nutritious and beneficial food that low-income families should have access to through the WIC program,” U.S. Sen. Angus King said Tuesday in a separate news release. “As we have said repeatedly, decisions about which foods are included in the WIC package should be based solely on science. And the science here is irrefutable.”