GAO Calls for Improved Food Safety of School Meals

WASHINGTONThe U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on May 3 released a new report calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to strengthen its oversight of the safety of foods purchased by its commodity program and service in federal school meal programs.

The report called for the commodity program to develop a systematic and transparent process to determine whether foods offered by the program require more-stringent specifications related to microbial contamination, including steps to identify pathogens, strains of pathogens, or other foods that merit more-stringent specifications; document the scientific basis used to develop the specifications; and review the specifications on a periodic basis.

USDA asked the GAO to review the extent to which the programs purchasing specifications related to microbial contamination differ from federal regulations; the extent to which specifications for raw ground beef differ from those imposed by some other large purchasers; examples of schools practices to help ensure that food is not contaminated.

The GAO compared the programs purchasing specifications to federal regulations for food sold commercially, gathered information from seven large purchasers of ground beef, and interviewed officials in 18 school districts in five states, selected in part because of their purchasing practices. For seven of the approximately 180 commodity foods offered to schools, the USDAs commodity program has established purchasing specifications with respect to microbial contamination that are more stringent than the federal regulations for the same foods in the commercial marketplace. Program officials told the GAO more-stringent specifications are needed for certain foods they purchase because they go to populations, such as very young children, at a higher risk for serious complications from food-borne illnesses.

The program has not developed more-stringent specifications for some pathogens and foods that have been associated with food-borne illness, such as raw, whole chickens cut into eight pieces that the program provides to schools. Program officials told the GAO they selected products for more-stringent specifications based on their views of the safety risk associated with different types of food; developed these specifications through informal consultation with a variety of groups; and did not document the process they used.

Only a few of the district officials the GAO interviewed were aware that the commodity programs purchasing specifications for seven products are more stringent than federal regulatory requirements. Officials from half of the districts that the GAO interviewed said that greater knowledge of these differences would affect their future purchasing decisions by enabling them to make more informed choices.

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