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Legislation Update: Food Safety and Food Marketing in Schools
Two new school food bills hit the table this week: the Safe Food for Schools Act, and the Food Marketing in Schools Assessment Act.
The School Food For Schools Act comes in response to a dismal GAO report that found that federal notification to schools about contaminated food was spotty at best. According to the report, the USDA notified states about the tainted products prior to issuing official recalls, but did not notify individual schools. Sometimes, it took several weeks before the department gave schools a full list of contaminated products. On top of that, federal efforts to check up on recall efforts missed schools entirely. The USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service and the FDA both conduct recall quality inspections to make sure recalls are carried out effectively, but neither body checked up on the schools that had received tainted products. According to the GAO report, the FSIS and the FDA thought the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (which administers the federal child nutrition programs) was conducting the checks. The FNS did not act because it thought the other two agencies were conducting the inspections.
The Safe Food for Schools Act, introduced by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) would implement some of the recommendations from the GAO report. The text of the legislation is not available yet, but according to a press release the bill will direct the USDA to, among other things:
- Develop guidelines for when to institute an administrative hold on suspect commodity products
- Improving direct communication between FNS and schools
- Work with states to speed up school notification of recalls
- Direct the FSIS to include schools in recall effectiveness checks
The other new bill, the Food Marketing in Schools Assessment Act, will require the secretary of education to conduct a study on the types and extent of food marketing in public schools. The study — to be completed by July 2011 — will discuss the nutritional content of marketed food items, as well as the ways in which they are marketed (logos, incentive programs, taste tests, etc.)
The attention to food marketing in schools is long overdue. According to a 2006 study of schools nationwide, 67 percent of public schools have marketing for low-nutrient food items that are high in sugar and fat, and 43 percent of schools participate in fundraising programs run by companies that sell junk food. On top of that, more than one-third of schools serve brand-name fast-food items for lunch. Though several model wellness policies contain restrictions on food marketing, few schools have adopted those provisions. A detailed study of food marketing in schools won’t accomplish much in terms of policy, but at least it will bring some of these issues to light.
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:05 pm
[...] July 2011. The nutritional content of marketed food items will also be explored. Read more here and here. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Stimulus Package & School NutritionFood [...]
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