Farm Food Safety checklists to give guidance on what school meal operators should be looking for when working with a new producer and on core farm food safety best practices.
Farm Food Safety may seem intimidating if this is your first time looking to buy from new producers. And as a producer, schools may seem like a tough market to crack with strict regulations surrounding farm food safety. At the core, schools are feeding highly vulnerable populations and need to ensure they are receiving food that was grown, raised, harvested, processed, and delivered safely. And on the other side, our producers are following regulations to ensure the products they are growing, raising, harvesting, processing, and delivering are of the highest quality and safe to consume.
While there isn’t a Federal Regulation requiring School Meal Operators to only purchase from farms that are GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) or GHP (Good Handling Practices) Certified, some may choose to implement that requirement for a mix of reasons. As a School Meal Operator it is important to look at your farm food safety requirements and identify if they support or hinder your local purchasing goals. Sometimes, those certifications can be cost-prohibitive for smaller producers who have solid farm food safety plans in place. Another thing to consider is if your policies on insurance are creating barriers to entry as these may also be cost-prohibitive or not even available for smaller producers to purchase. Worth noting – in Colorado, animal proteins such as beef must be slaughtered in a USDA certified facility.
So much of Farm Food Safety comes down to relationships and ensuring there is a documented plan in place that has measures in place to check for accountability. We recommend visiting the farms you would like to source from and seeing their growing operations. Ask to see their farm food safety plan and how often they review it. Here is a list of common Farm to School Food Safety FAQs on USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services Website.
As a producer, this resource shares links to templates and varying websites focused on farm food safety. Some organizations in our State offer farm food safety training at reasonable costs. Check out the Colorado Produce Safety Collaborative Information Hub for more info and resources. Another great site is the CO Fruit and Vegetable Growers website as it has some educational food safety webinars among other resources as well. For a deeper dive, check out Penn State Extension’s Page of Farm Food Safety.