Food Safety
Locally produced food is just as safe to serve in your child nutrition programs as any other food.
Meat and eggs need to be processed under State inspection if they are produced in Utah, and under Federal inspection if the product is sold across state lines.
There are no specific food safety regulations for produce. Some farms may have GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) Certification. This represents a voluntary audit verifying that fruits and vegetables are produced, packed, handled, and stored to minimize risks of microbial food safety hazards. However, farms without this certification are also safe to purchase from-- frequently they just do not have the funding to complete the formal audit process. In this case, we recommend you use our Food Safety Checklist to evaluate their food growing, harvesting, and handling processes.
School Garden Food Safety
It is safe and allowable to use garden produce in your child nutrition programs. We recommend implementing our School Garden Food Safety Protocols to ensure garden produce is grown and harvested safely.
Organically Grown Food
Some child nutrition programs may choose to purchase food that is organically certified or grown with organic practices. It's important to remember that organic certification is not a food safety certification, and organically grown food is not automatically "safer" than conventional food. It is still important to ask organic growers about their food safety practices.
