School+Cafeteria+Guidelines+for+Health+&+Nutrition

School cafeterias need to have guidelines for the health and nutrition of students. Since 2009, they must meet USDA requirements of dietary standards. The United States Department of Agriculture requested this change in order to meet students' nutritional needs. One of the main changes that took place in most cafeterias was that more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains were included. Another change that occurred was the amount of sodium intake in the foods that children ate was lowered (Mentry).

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National Food Service Management Institute website, which discusses Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) within kitchens.

Sanitation is an important aspect of health and safety in school cafeterias. Here at Towson, I have observed kitchen staff members actively making sure that federal sanitation guidelines are met. HACCP or Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points, is a system that was designed by NASA. It involves monitoring possible food safety problems at identified problem points from when food enters a facility to when it is consumed. This is the practice that cooks adhere to when working in our schools’ cafeteria. Take Newell dining hall for example. While waiting in the pasta line, I noticed the cook was sticking a thermometer into each of the dishes and recording the temperatures she found. This type of logging must be kept by the kitchen and stored for up to a full year. Why is this so important? At a certain temperature, food will enter the danger zone, which is a temperature unfit for food that can cause foodborne illnesses. (See “controlling time temp during prep” document in the link provided for more information)

Another major safety hazard is known as cross contamination. This is when a new batch of food is mixed in with an old batch of food, which has been sitting out and is no longer fresh. Again, at Newell Dining Hall, the cooks take special care to put out fresh trays of food rather than dumping new mac & cheese into the old, half empty mac & cheese containers. They also make sure to use clean serving utensils and do not mix them with different foods. (See “preventing cross contamination during storage and prep” document in the link provided for more information)

Towson University is actively adhering to the guidelines of food safety in order to keep its students healthy and safe. Kitchens everywhere can be told to follow these rules but may choose to slack off. Having seen first hand the measures that our cooks and staff have been taking, I feel it is safe to say that Towson University is keeping our food clean to maintain our students’ health and wellbeing. " (Madeline Georgevich) USDA (August 2010). Ella Mentry //USDA Guidelines For School Cafeterias// Retrieved September, 2010 []

U. S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. (June 2005). Controlling time temp during prep. Retrieved September, 2010, from []

U. S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. (June 2005). Preventing cross contamination during storage and prep. Retrieved September, 2010, from []