FNS Documents & Resources

The FNS Food Safety division develops education, instruction and technical assistance resources for individuals working in federally funded nutrition assistance programs such as the NSLP, SBP, CACFP, and SFSP. Many of these resources are created in partnership with the Institute of Child Nutrition.

A set of three handouts on best practices to help you safely handle and store USDA foods at home.

The Special Milk Program provides milk to children in schools, child care institutions and eligible camps that do not participate in other federal child nutrition meal service programs. The program reimburses schools and institutions for the milk they serve. In 2011, 3,848 schools and residential child care institutions participated, along with 782 summer camps and 527 non‐residential child care institutions. Schools in the National School Lunch or School Breakfast Programs may also participate in the Special Milk Program to provide milk to children in half‐day pre‐kindergarten and kindergarten programs where children do not have access to the school meal programs.

School meals are required to meet specific nutrition standards to operate the school meals programs. The standards align school meals with the latest nutrition science and the real world circumstances of America’s schools. 

The Request for Information will be available for public comment through April 23, 2018.  The comment period for the Request for Information that was published on Dec. 14, 2017 (82 FR 58792) has been extended from Feb. 12, 2018 to April 23, 2018.

Washing Produce - Part of a five-video series,  available in English and Spanish, offers “tricks of the trade” to help food service operators keep produce safe and at a high quality.

Temperature Readings - Part of a five-video series,  available in English and Spanish, offers “tricks of the trade” to help food service operators keep produce safe and at a high quality.

Storage Temperatures - Part of a five-video series,  available in English and Spanish, offers “tricks of the trade” to help food service operators keep produce safe and at a high quality.

Ethylene Gas - Part of a five-video series,  available in English and Spanish, offers “tricks of the trade” to help food service operators keep produce safe and at a high quality. 

Ready-to-eat - Part of a five-video series,  available in English and Spanish, offers “tricks of the trade” to help food service operators keep produce safe and at a high quality.