09/19/2022 | News release | Distributed by Public on 09/19/2022 12:30
Now that you have completed the Action Guide checklist, you know which areas of food safety need your attention. You can turn to the Action Sheets in Part 2 for guidance in addressing these areas. Each Action Sheet addresses a specific area of food safety by providing you with background information, action steps that will help you build your framework, and resources for the in-depth information you will need to develop or strengthen that area.
The first Action Sheet focuses on information that will help you understand the food safety requirements of the National School Lunch Act. Understanding these requirements will give you a firm foundation for building food-safe schools. The remaining Action Sheets include information you will need to improve on your foundation and move to the next level of food safety.
Action Sheets
The National School Lunch Act: Food Safety RequirementsThe Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act is a federal law that provides assistance to states in establishing, maintaining, operating, and expanding child nutrition programs offered through schools. It requires these programs to meet minimum food safety requirements. Child nutrition programs include the:
The National School Lunch Act was most recently amended in 2010. It includes the food safety requirements established in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 and the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004.
Currently, the National School Lunch Act requires:
Serving safe food is a critical responsibility for you and your school nutrition team and is also a recommendation of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Through a school food safety program, you can control the risks associated with storing, preparing, and serving food. The program should include a written plan based on HACCP principles and documented Standard operating procedures (SOPs). HACCP is a systematic approach to identifying, evaluating, and controlling food safety risks. USDA offers the process approach to HACCP principles as a foundation for your school food safety program.
SOPs are very important to an effective food safety program. They serve as a basic food safety platform, and they control for nonspecific risks that may not be addressed in the HACCP-based plan. For example, surfaces of equipment and utensils that are soiled and have not been sanitized should not come into contact with raw or cooked (ready-to-eat) food. Procedures to prevent this should be covered by an SOP.
Active managerial control (AMC) is another important concept that is critical to the success of a food safety program based on HACCP principles. AMC means that you and your school nutrition managers take a preventive, rather than reactive, approach to food safety by understanding and consistently applying the school food safety plan to prevent, eliminate, or reduce the occurrence of risks that may result in foodborne illness.
You may be responsible for food prepared and served in many schools by many people. As a school nutrition director, you can do your part by ensuring that everyone with nutrition responsibilities is knowledgeable in food safety and safe food-handling practices.
Some of the most important responsibilities are to know and implement the state and local public health regulations, maintain up-to-date knowledge about food safety, and teach school nutrition employees about good food safety practices. Employees need training on basic food safety principles and on their role in applying these principles. They also need ongoing education to practice behaviors, reinforce concepts, and learn about new developments.
In addition, it is important that school nutrition directors and managers educate and train others in the school about food safety. For example, teachers may assist with serving breakfast to students in their classrooms; school bus drivers may oversee breakfast service on the bus; or students may help serve fruit and vegetable snacks in the school.
Foodborne illness (also known as food poisoning or foodborne disease) is any illness that results from eating contaminated food. The CDC estimates that each year roughly 1 in 6 Americans (or 48 million people) gets sick from eating contaminated food.
Bacteria and viruses are the most common causes of foodborne illness. School nutrition employees can transfer bacteria and viruses from their hands to the food that they prepare. To prevent this, school nutrition employees should not work when they are sick, always wash their hands before preparing food, and use gloves or utensils when handling ready-to-eat food. It is your responsibility to educate and train school nutrition employees in these practices and to take action to prevent employees from contaminating food.
Eating fruits and vegetables is important to a healthy diet and lifestyle. The federally funded National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), and Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) provide financial assistance to states and local school communities to offer a variety of fruits and vegetables in school meals and snacks. The new meal patterns for the NSLP and SBP require schools to serve more fruits and vegetables. Fresh produce may require little or no cooking or processing, which is one reason why school nutrition employees must take care to ensure the safety of the produce they handle and serve.
Schools may receive fresh produce from a variety of sources including wholesalers, conventional and organic growers, and large and small local producers. Farm-to-school programs and school gardens also serve as sources of fresh produce for school meal programs. Farm-to-school programs support local farmers and provide opportunities to teach students about the origins of their food. Schools across the nation also are using gardens to help children discover where food comes from and develop healthy eating habits. Gardens provide a way for children to grow, harvest, prepare, and taste a variety of fruits and vegetables.
Schools can encourage students to choose fresh produce when they have the opportunity, such as from salad bars or self-service lines in the cafeteria. As long as appropriate precautions are taken, schools can safely serve students fresh fruits and vegetables from a variety of sources and through various methods.
A food allergy is an exaggerated immune response to a specific food, referred to as a food allergen. Although the immune system normally protects us from germs, in individuals with food allergies this system mistakenly responds to a food as if it is harmful. When exposed to a food allergen, the immune system of an allergic person makes a protein called IgE antibody. This protein alerts cells to release powerful chemicals, such as histamine, that cause symptoms that can affect the respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, skin, or cardiovascular system, and can lead to a life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis. Although more than 170 foods are known to cause a food allergy, in the United States, eight foods - milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, wheat, soy, peanuts, and tree nuts - account for 90 percent of these allergies.
Food allergies are a growing food safety and public health concern in schools that affect an estimated 4-6 percent of children in the United States. Studies indicate that 16-18 percent of children with food allergies have had a reaction from accidentally eating food allergens while at school. In addition, 25 percent of the severe and potentially life-threatening reactions (anaphylaxis) reported at schools happened in children with no previous diagnosis of food allergy. Currently, there are no treatments available for preventing food allergies; the key to managing food allergies is to avoid exposure to food allergens. However, avoidance is not always easy or possible, and accidental reactions to foods, including anaphylaxis, can occur in school.
It is important for your school district to develop and carry out policies and procedures to manage food allergies which may include educating staff, parents, and teachers about food allergies; preventing exposure to food allergens; and responding quickly and effectively to a child experiencing a reaction.
Food defense means protecting food from intentional contamination by biological, chemical, physical, or radiological agents that can cause harm or death. Schools may be a target for an attack on their food supply for specific reasons: children are a vulnerable population; harming children who are assumed to be safe at school would have a major emotional impact on the community and beyond; schools provide very large numbers of servings per day; schools dispense very large batches of a single food on any given day; and activities such as transporting prepared foods from a central kitchen to a school site increase the risk of intentional contamination.
Also, food can be at risk of intentional contamination during handling at a school - from receiving through storing, preparing, and serving. Intentional acts are hard to predict and require an immediate and thorough response.
Food defense involves having measures in place to reduce the chances of someone intentionally contaminating the food in your school nutrition operation and to prepare for a quick response if an emergency does occur.
A food recall occurs when there is reason to believe that a food may cause illness or injury. A food manufacturer or distributor initiates the recall to take foods off the market. In some situations, government agencies request a recall based on information they receive following a complaint or an investigation of illness.
Some reasons for recalling food include:
When a recall occurs, school nutrition operations must respond rapidly to make sure the recalled food is not served and to identify recalled food that may have been served already. Having procedures in place to respond to a food recall will assure a quick response and will protect children.
A foodborne illness outbreak occurs when two or more people get the same illness from eating contaminated food from a common source. While foodborne illness outbreaks are relatively uncommon in schools, they do occur. Even one case of foodborne illness can be devastating. Outbreaks can threaten children's lives. Parents can panic. Districts can be held financially liable.
Protecting the safety and welfare of students and school staff are priorities when a foodborne illness outbreak occurs at a school. An investigation of an outbreak goes through many steps. Each outbreak will have unique characteristics that present a variety of issues for investigators; therefore, it is important to be prepared to respond to different types of investigations. Due to the challenges associated with an investigation, it may take investigators days, weeks, or months to identify the source of contamination that caused illness. You can help decrease this investigation time, and possibly prevent new illnesses from occurring, by preparing your school nutrition team for an outbreak investigation, and helping them understand response expectations.
As you advance, work with your local health department to be sure your food safety efforts meet state and local food safety requirements as well. You may want to get input from your school administrators, teachers, and others in the school community who have experience or expertise to share. See Part 3 for tips on communicating with various members of the school community.