1). Federally Subsidized School Meal Programs

Federally subsidized school meal programs, such as the National School  Lunch Program, are administered by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service  (FNS), but several other USDA agencies are involved in procuring foods  for the programs. However,  both FSIS and FDA can request that a company recall a product and, in  most cases, the company complies. 2). Despite Its Efforts, FNS Did Not Always Ensure that States and Schools Received Timely and Complete Information about Potentially Dangerous Commodity Products in Three Companies’ Recalls

As a result of a number of factors, FNS did not always ensure in our three  recall cases that states and schools received timely and complete  notification about suspect food products provided to schools through the  federal commodity program. FNS Notifications to States about the Westland/Hallmark Recall Did Not Always Provide Complete Information, Particularly on Processed Products

In the Westland/Hallmark case, FNS officials said that they notified states  on the same day they learned of the recall affecting commodity products,  but FNS’s initial recall communication did not provide states with  complete and accurate information that was needed by schools to identify  all affected products on their shelves. Because they stopped serving any beef  products after the recall announcement, these school districts did not risk  serving products, including processed products, that were later identified  as the recall unfolded and expanded. Figure 3 shows a large quantity of beef from one school district  at a transfer station, prior to being transported to a landfill for disposal. Some State and School Officials Said They Were Not Reimbursed for All Costs Incurred in Disposal and Found the Process Difficult

Some school officials told us they were not reimbursed for all costs  incurred due to recalls. In an overall review of FSIS and FDA food recalls,  we also previously reported that the agencies’ procedures for selecting the  sample of companies to check did not ensure that all segments of a food  distribution chain are included, as well as problems with the timeliness of  the checks. FDA officials said that they conducted audit checks for the PCA peanut  product recalls, and field staff were instructed to give priority to schools in  making their selections for the audit checks, but only schools that  procured the products commercially were included because the audit  checks specifically excluded schools that received affected peanut  products only through the school meals program. FSIS did ask FNS to provide names of schools and states affected by the  Westland/Hallmark recall of commodity beef and received a list of over  7,000 affected school districts, but FSIS officials did not use this  information to include the schools in its effectiveness checks. FNS Did Not Monitor the Effectiveness of Recalls or its Own Administrative Holds for Commodity Products in Schools

Although FSIS and FDA procedures direct them to monitor the  effectiveness of recalls, they told us that they relied on FNS to conduct  checks of schools affected by recalls of USDA commodity products;  however, FNS does not conduct such effectiveness checks. Conclusions

Protecting school children from food-borne illnesses in schools depends  on the efforts of many local, state, and federal entities. We recommend the Secretary of Agriculture direct FNS to:   develop guidelines, in consultations with AMS and FSA, to be used for  determining whether or not to institute an administrative hold on suspect  commodities for school meal programs;   work with states to explore ways for states to speed notification to  improve the timeliness and completeness of direct communication  between FNS and schools about holds and recalls, such as through the  commodity alert system;  take the lead among USDA agencies to establish a time frame in which it  will improve the USDA commodity hold and recall procedures to address  the role of processors and determine distributors’ involvement with  processed products, which may contain recalled ingredients, to facilitate  providing more timely and complete information to schools;  revise its procedures to provide states with more specific instructions for  schools on how to dispose of recalled commodities and obtain timely  reimbursement; and institute a systematic quality check procedure to ensure that FNS holds on  foods and products used by schools are carried out effectively. In addition, this report  will be available at no charge on GAO’s Web site at http://www.gao.gov.
Why GAO Did This Study

Over the past few years, several food recalls, such as for beef and peanut products, have affected schools. It is especially important that recalls affecting schools be carried out efficiently and effectively because young children have a higher risk of complications from food-borne illnesses. GAO was asked to determine how federal agencies (1) notified states and schools about food recalls, (2) advised states and schools about disposal and reimbursement of recalled food, and (3) ensured that recalls were being carried out effectively. To do this, GAO reviewed and analyzed relevant documents and interviewed federal and state officials, as well as officials from 23 school districts that had experience with at least one of four recent cases involving the safety of food in the school lunch program.

What GAO Found

Despite its efforts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), which oversees federal school meals programs, did not always ensure that states and schools received timely and complete notification about suspect food products provided to schools through the federal commodity program. The federal commodity program provides food to schools at no cost to the schools, and accounts for 15 to 20 percent of food served in school meals. During 3 recent recalls, FNS notified states, but in only one case did it inform schools to hold and not serve suspect foods prior to an official recall of commodity products. When a videotape aired by the media showed inhumane treatment of cattle at a plant that provided beef to the commodity program, FNS told states to have schools stop serving the company's beef weeks before the official recall of commodity beef was announced. However, when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalled suspect peanut products and canned vegetables in two other cases, FNS did not inform states and schools to hold and not serve the companies' commodity products until the recalls were expanded to include the companies' commodity products--weeks later. FNS's initial notification to states regarding recalls did not provide complete information on the full range of products affected. Instead, states and schools continued to receive information on multiple other recalled products over time. It sometimes took states and schools a week or more to determine what additional products were subject to a recall, during which time they unknowingly served affected products. FNS provided instructions for disposal and reimbursement of recalled products to states who, in turn, provided instructions to schools but, nonetheless, some schools experienced problems. Some schools reported to GAO problems in finding landfills that would accept large quantities of recalled products. Some schools also reported that reimbursement instructions were not clear, reimbursement was delayed for months, and that all of their expenses related to the recalls were not reimbursed. Although both USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) and the FDA procedures direct them to conduct recall quality checks, neither included thousands of schools that had received recalled USDA-commodities products for the beef and peanut recalls because they thought FNS conducted these checks. As a result, they were unable to ensure that the recalls were being carried out effectively by schools. FNS officials said that they did not conduct any kind of systematic quality checks of schools receiving recalled commodities, because they relied on FSIS and FDA to conduct such checks. FDA did include schools in its canned vegetable recall audit checks, and some may have received recalled-commodity canned vegetables. However, because FDA does not systematically sample for schools or analyze results of the quality checks for the group, the agency cannot be assured that the recall was carried out effectively in schools.