[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1693 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1693

 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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 22, 2009

Mrs. Gillibrand introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 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 ``Safe Food for Schools Act of 2009''.

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 Safe Food for Schools Act of 2009, the 
Secretary, acting through the Administrator of the Food and Nutrition 
Service, shall--
            ``(1) in consultation with the Administrator of the 
        Agricultural Marketing Service and the Administrator of the 
        Farm Service Agency, develop guidelines to determine the 
        circumstances in which it is appropriate for the Secretary to 
        institute an administrative hold on suspect commodities and 
        products 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 
        increase the timeliness of notification of food recalls to 
        schools and school food authorities;
            ``(3) improve the timeliness and completeness of direct 
        communication between the Food and Nutrition Service and 
        schools about holds and recalls, such as through the commodity 
        alert system of the Food and Nutrition Service;
            ``(4) establish a timeframe in which the Food and Nutrition 
        Service shall improve the commodity hold and recall procedures 
        of the Department of Agriculture to address the role of 
        processors and determine the involvement of distributors with 
        processed products, which may contain recalled ingredients, to 
        facilitate the provision of more timely and complete 
        information to schools;
            ``(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 commodities and products and obtain timely 
        reimbursement; and
            ``(6) institute a systematic quality check procedure to 
        ensure that holds by the Food and Nutrition Service on 
        commodities and products used by schools are carried out 
        effectively.
    ``(b) Food Safety and Inspection Service.--Not later than 1 year 
after the date of enactment of the Safe Food for Schools Act of 2009, 
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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