USDA Announces School Lunch Food-Safety Initiatives

WASHINGTONAgriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced several new initiatives to assure the safety and quality of food purchased by USDA for the National School Lunch Program and other food and nutrition assistance programs.

The combined effort of the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) include the following:

AMS will implement new food-safety purchasing requirements for its beef suppliers as a result of a review of the beef purchase program conducted by FSIS and ARS. AMS will continue its zero tolerance for Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 for its products and will continue to use onsite meat acceptance specialists and other control measures.

ARS and FSIS will provide technical assistance to AMS for School Lunch and other federal nutrition assistance programs.

National Academy of Sciences will review the ground beef purchasing program. By the summer, NAS will conduct a thorough evaluation of the scientific validity of the current AMS technical requirements. This review will include benchmarking AMS vendor requirements against recognized industry leading programs that supply product directly to consumers.

AMS will increase information sharing with other agencies to better monitor vendor performance and identify potential food-safety issues. Information on in-plant enforcement actions, positive pathogen test results, contract suspensions, recall notifications, and more will be better shared between USDA agencies.

FSIS will work with AMS to review and evaluate meat, poultry and processed egg vendors as part of the AMS vendor eligibility process.

FNS will review and evaluate methods currently being used by state agencies to communicate with schools and school districts regarding product recalls. FNS will develop performance criteria that allow states to provide rapid communication to schools and school districts. FNS will provide financial assistance to states to allow them to upgrade the speed and accuracy of their food-safety messages.

FNS will establish a Center of Excellence devoted to research on school food-safety issues in FNS child nutrition programs. Research is needed in areas such as produce safety, proper cooling practices, evaluation of in-school food safety programs, and the containment of norovirus, which is the leading cause of foodborne illness in schools.

FSA is evaluating and strengthening current requirements and will amend those requirements to better reflect compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and use of a verified Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points program. FSA will ensure that commercial suppliers are able to provide a qualified level of food-safety assurance for USDA programs.