School Lunches Remain Unhealthy, Gross

City officials often tout their far-reaching efforts to make school lunches healthier for students. They even called in Rachael Ray for help. But according to a Daily News investigation, school meals remain as unhealthy and as remarkably disgusting-sounding as they've always been.

Dishes like beef chili are still loaded with fat, and despite the Department of Education's claims it is "eliminating" high-fructose corn syrup, the sweetener was found in ketchup, chocolate milk, corn flakes, and a prefabricated grilled cheese that is heated and served in the plastic bag it comes in.

Additives including the flour bleaching agent azodicarbonamide and blending ingredients datem and sodium stearoyl lactylate are still in pizza, and the salad bar at Brooklyn's High School of Telecommunication Art and Technology reportedly "features little more than lettuce and pickles."

Nutritionists say the city has done little to make meals healthier for students. "It's more window dressing than real change," said nutritionist Susan Rubin, founder of the Westchester-based advocacy group Better School Food. "Just cutting the calories and fat doesn't make this processed food healthy." But Eric Goldstein, Department of Education head of food and transportation, says the city has "made tremendous, just absolutely groundbreaking, strides" to make meals healthier. He cited switching to whole-grain breads and pastas, eliminating full-fat milk, and bringing better produce to schools. That said, Goldstein acknowledged "[t]he school food world is a different world. It's not Whole Foods."