School Meal Safety and Standards Act - Amends the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to require the Secretary of Agriculture to: (1) develop guidelines for determining when it is appropriate to institute an administrative hold on suspect food and commodities being used in school meal programs; (2) work with states to increase the timeliness and completeness of their notifications to schools and school food authorities of food and commodity holds and recalls; (3) improve the timeliness and completeness of direct notifications to states, schools, and school food authorities about holds and recalls; (4) establish a timeframe for improving commodity hold and recall procedures so that they address the role of processors and distributors and facilitate the provision of more timely and complete information to states, schools, and school food authorities; (5) revise procedures to provide states with more specific instructions for schools and school food authorities about how to dispose of recalled foods and commodities and obtain timely reimbursement; (6) institute a systematic quality check procedure to ensure that holds and recalls on foods and commodities used by schools are carried out effectively; (7) study existing commercial practices and standards regarding food quality, safety, and testing; and (8) implement regulations that require the Department of Agriculture to meet or exceed, with respect to the school meal programs, commercial practices and standards.
Directs the Secretary, within one year of this Act's enactment, to revise the procedures of the Food Safety and Inspection Service to ensure that schools are included in recall effectiveness checks.
[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4590 Introduced in House (IH)]
111th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4590
To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to require
the Secretary of Agriculture to ensure the safety of school meals by
enhancing coordination with States and schools operating school meal
programs in the case of a recall of contaminated food.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 3, 2010
Mr. Sestak introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Education and Labor
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to require
the Secretary of Agriculture to ensure the safety of school meals by
enhancing coordination with States and schools operating school meal
programs in the case of a recall of contaminated food.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``School Meal Safety and Standards
Act''.
SEC. 2. ENSURING SAFETY OF SCHOOL MEALS.
The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act is amended by
inserting after section 22 (42 U.S.C. 1769c) the following:
``SEC. 23. ENSURING SAFETY OF SCHOOL MEALS.
``(a) Food and Nutrition Service.--Not later than 1 year after the
date of enactment of the School Meal Safety and Standards Act, the
Secretary, acting through the Administrator of the Food and Nutrition
Service, the Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service, or
the Administrator of the Farm Service Agency, as appropriate, shall--
``(1) develop guidelines to determine the circumstances in
which it is appropriate for the Secretary to institute an
administrative hold on suspect food and commodities being used
in school meal programs under this Act and the Child Nutrition
Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 et seq.);
``(2) work with States to explore ways for the States to
improve the timeliness and completeness of notification of food
and commodity holds and recalls to schools and school food
authorities;
``(3) improve the timeliness and completeness of
notification of food and commodity holds and recalls by the
Food and Nutrition Service to States, schools, and school food
authorities, such as through the commodity alert system of the
Food and Nutrition Service;
``(4) establish a timeframe by when the Food and Nutrition
Service shall improve the food and commodity hold and recall
procedures of the Department of Agriculture to--
``(A) address the role of processors and determine
the involvement of distributors with processed products
that may contain recalled ingredients; and
``(B) facilitate the provision of more timely and
accurate information to schools, States, and school
food authorities;
``(5) revise the procedures of the Food and Nutrition
Service to provide States with more specific instructions for
schools and school food authorities about how to dispose of
recalled foods and commodities and obtain timely reimbursement;
``(6) institute a systematic quality check procedure to
ensure that holds and recalls by the Food and Nutrition Service
on foods and commodities used by schools are carried out
effectively;
``(7) study existing commercial practices and standards
regarding food quality, safety, and testing procedures and
frequency; and
``(8) implement regulations that require the Department of
Agriculture to meet or exceed, with respect to foods and
commodities being used under the school meal programs, the
commercial practices and standards studied pursuant to
paragraph (7).
``(b) Food Safety and Inspection Service.--Not later than 1 year
after the date of enactment of the School Meal Safety and Standards
Act, the Secretary, acting through the Administrator of the Food Safety
and Inspection Service, shall revise the procedures of the Food Safety
and Inspection Service to ensure that schools are included in
effectiveness checks.''.
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Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities.
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