The House Committee on Education and the Workforce will hold a hearing Wednesday on the reauthorization of the 2010 “Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act”.

Proponents say the nutritional requirements in the law help address America’s epidemic of childhood obesity. The School Nutrition Association supports the reauthorization of the act, but it opposes the full implementation of the nutritional rules. 

The SNA says the requirements, such as a gradual lowering of sodium levels and a mandate to increase whole grain content, turn students off of healthy food options. Research from the University of Connecticut came to the opposite conclusion.

The SNA has come under attack for its ties to food and beverage conglomerates, whose products could be pushed out of lunch rooms if the sodium rules were to go into full effect.