Is MyPlate Discontinued? The 2026 Transition, Explained
The USDA retired MyPlate.gov in January 2026, replaced by RealFood.gov and an inverted pyramid. What changed, what survives, and where your plan works, free.
The USDA retired MyPlate.gov in January 2026, replaced by RealFood.gov and an inverted pyramid. What changed, what survives, and where your plan works, free.
🇺🇸 The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines are out, and MyPlate is no longer the federal icon
January 7, 2026 · United States · DGA · MyPlate icon
HHS and USDA released the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, launched RealFood.gov, and retired the MyPlate.gov website. The new edition leans toward protein-rich whole foods, with red meat now named among the recommended proteins, and toward full-fat dairy. It replaces the MyPlate picture with an inverted food pyramid.
The interactive MyPlate Plan calculator was taken down at the same time.
What it means: The plate icon taught since 2011 is no longer the federal symbol. Our MyPlate Plan calculator still gives the 2020-2025 MyPlate plan, unchanged.
Sources: dietaryguidelines.gov (USDA & HHS) · realfood.gov (USDA & HHS) · USDA + HHS press release (Jan 7, 2026) (USDA)
The full analysis
January 7, 2026 was the biggest single day in US nutrition guidance since 2011. HHS and USDA released the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, launched RealFood.gov as the public site, and retired MyPlate.gov, whose old address now redirects. The interactive MyPlate Plan calculator, the food-group pages, the portion guides and the MyPlate Kitchen recipe collection all went offline. No federal site has rebuilt the calculator.
The icon change is the visible part: an inverted food pyramid replaced the plate that had been the federal symbol since 2011. What the guidance says matters more. The new edition leans toward protein-rich whole foods, names red meat among the recommended proteins, and makes room for full-fat dairy. Our new pyramid vs MyPlate comparison sets the two side by side.
If you built a plan on MyPlate, nothing about your plan broke. The 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines, the last edition with MyPlate as its icon, are still complete and consistent, and that is what our MyPlate Plan calculator uses: the same IOM energy equations and USDA Food Pattern tables the federal tool used. We never swap editions quietly. If we add a 2025-2030 mode, it will be labeled, not substituted.
What else survives: all 1,072 MyPlate Kitchen recipes with full nutrition data, the food-group and portion pages, and the printable tip sheets and quizzes teachers used, all kept up to date and free. The fuller background is on What is MyPlate?. MyPlate.food is independent and not affiliated with the USDA; we document the guidance, we do not speak for it.
Where to look depends on what you need. RealFood.gov holds the current 2025-2030 edition and the government's new tools, and it is the authoritative source for the new framework. This site is for the people, classrooms and clinicians whose plans, lesson materials and habits were built in the MyPlate format, and for anyone following how the guidance keeps changing, here and in What's new.