Administration Needs to Work More Collaboratively to Protect the Safety of School Meals, GAO Finds
WASHINGTON, D.C. – To ensure that foods served to children in the nation’s schools are safe, the federal agencies that oversee school meals and food safety must work more collaboratively and establish better communications procedures, according to a government report released today by Congressional Democrats.The investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Services (FNS), the government agency which oversees the federal school meals program, “did not always ensure that states and schools receives timely and complete notification about suspect food products provided to schools through the federal commodity program.” In some cases, it took states and schools several days to a week or more to fully determine which products were recalled. During that time, the recalled products may have been served in the school meals. The investigation was requested by U.S. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), and U.S. Reps. George Miller (D-CA), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY).
“This report underscores the need for comprehensive reform of our food safety structures,” said Durbin. “The 30 million students in the national school lunch program, their parents, and the country at large, deserve to know that the food they eat is safe and free of contaminants.”
“Ensuring that all children have access to healthy and nutritious meals during the school day is vital to our efforts to help all children learn and succeed. Every possible effort must be made to make sure that the foods served to our schoolchildren are safe to eat,” said Miller, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Child Nutrition Act. “As we work toward reauthorizing the school meal programs, it is clear that further actions must be taken to strengthen the communications, planning and procedures needed to prevent recalled or contaminated foods from entering our cafeterias.”
“It is absolutely essential that food recalls affecting schools are carried out quickly and effectively because children are most vulnerable to becoming seriously ill from food-borne illness outbreaks,” said DeLauro. “This report demonstrates that much work needs to be done to ensure that adequate monitoring and notification procedures are in place to remove recalled food products from school cafeterias. I will work with USDA and FNS to ensure that our school children our protected from unsafe foods.”
“This report shows us that school safety doesn’t just mean stopping violence and bullying. It also means ensuring our students have access to healthy, and safe school meals,” said McCarthy. “It is clear there is no silver bullet solution but I hope the administration will take the appropriate action to keep the school meal program safe for all our children.”
Foods from the commodity market account for 15 to 20 percent of school meal products. The process in place to notify schools of contaminated or recalled products starts first with FNS, who contacts state agencies; state agencies then notify school districts. FNS must notify states within 24 hours of learning of a recall, and then states are expected to notify school districts within 24 hours of receiving the notice. When states or school districts purchase food commercially, which accounts for the remaining 80 to 85 percent of products in school meals, the school district is typically notified directly by a distributor, wholesaler, or whoever sold the school district the food.
The report highlights the lack of communication among the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and FNS. The gaps in communication among these agencies ultimately leads to delays in schools and school districts receiving the information they needed to take timely action. Gaps also meant school districts did not receive appropriate guidance on how to dispose of recalled products, which could increase the risk for those products to be “inadvertently consumed.”
In some instances, school districts initiated the hold on potentially contaminated products themselves while they waited for confirmation from USDA.
The lawmakers requested the probe initially in February 2008, after an undercover video by the Humane Society of the United States revealed egregious abuses of cattle at a California meatpacking plant, which led to the largest beef recall in U.S. history. A significant portion of the recalled meat had been supplied to school and other federal nutrition programs.
The report also looked into contaminated peanut products, after information was revealed about the unsanitary conditions at the Peanut Corporation of America in Blakely, Georgia that led to a salmonella outbreak. According to new reports, the plant’s outbreak was linked with sickness in more than 500 people; including eight deaths.
To view the full GAO report, click here.
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