School Food Safety Program For
Our Town Elementary School
Food Safety Programs Are Now Required For School Lunch
As part of the Child Nutrition Programs Reauthorization legislation, school food service
programs are required to begin developing and implementing a school food safety program
based on the process approach to a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) food
safety system or a complete HACCP program. HACCP is a preventive approach to food safety
with required daily procedure controls. This manual identifies the minimum elements that must
be included in your food safety program.
Safety is a critical issue facing the food service industry. Outbreaks of foodborne
illness result in substantial costs to consumers, producers, and the national economy. Microbial
foodborne pathogens are a major food safety concern, causing millions of cases of foodborne
illness each year in the United States and up to 9,000 deaths.
Approximately 75% of reported foodborne illness is due to mishandling of food in food
service operations. The improper food service practices that cause these outbreaks have been
well documented by the Centers for Disease control and Prevention and typically involve time
and temperature abuse (improper heating, cooling, and holding) and contamination (poor
personal hygiene, cross-contamination, to.). These outbreaks basically represent the failure of
food service personnel to follow good food preparation practices.
With more and more of the consumer food dollar being spent on eating out and
increasing, safety is critically important. Food safety experts agree that a significant amount
of foodborne illness could be prevented if the food industry implemented a Hazard Analysis
Critical Control Point (HACCP) food safety program in their operations.
The major causes of foodborne illness are (improper temperature control and
contamination) and the means to prevent foodborne illness (HACCP) have been clearly
identified, the incidence of foodborne illnesses in the United States has not decreased, and in
the case of some pathogens, such as Salmonella and E. coli 0157:H7, may actually be
increasing.
Many state and local health officers and sanitarians, food service managers, and
employees do not yet understand HACCP or their role in the HACCP system. Formation of a
government-industry-universal partnership that results in Comprehensive, cooperative, and