School lunch overhaul signed into law
By Lisa M. Keefe
President Obama has signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 into law, changing the guidelines for school lunch programs in order to add vegetables and fruit and take steps to reduce childhood obesity.
The legislation, authored by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), reauthorizes federal child nutrition programs and makes the largest investment in the programs since their inception.
It provides for the first non-inflationary increase in the federal reimbursement rate for school lunch programs since 1973, and takes a step toward addressing the epidemic of childhood obesity by establishing national nutrition standards for all foods sold on school campuses throughout the school day. The bill received strong bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.
“The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act puts us on a path toward improving the health of the next generation of Americans, providing common-sense solutions to tackling childhood hunger and obesity,” Lincoln said, in a news release.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said, “As we continue to focus on the twin issues of childhood obesity and hunger, we will increase access to good, quality meals in school cafeterias so the nutritional needs of our youngsters are better met. This bill, along with the resources and the powers provided under it, are going to allow USDA to be much more effective and aggressive in responding to obesity and hunger challenges for America’s kids.”
First Lady Michelle Obama has made childhood obesity and the need for more exercise among school-age kids a primary concern. She advocated for the new law, and earlier in 2010 launched the “Let’s Move” campaign to encourage kids to work exercise into their daily routines.
Industry News – AM
Good, bad news for restaurants in 2011: NPD
By Lisa M. Keefe on 12/14/2010
Restaurant traffic growth is showing signs of life, but with unemployment stubbornly high, to call it a “recovery” would be premature, according to recent research by The NPD Group market research firm.
In the third quarter, restaurant traffic was down 1 percent compared with year-earlier figures. Traffic is expected to grow in the fourth calendar quarter of 2010 and in 2011, but only by about 1 percent, NPD reported in a news release.
In commercial foodservice, results look very much like they did in 2008, after notable declines in the category in the third quarter a year ago. Meanwhile, quick-service restaurants were up by 1 percent in the third quarter, NPD reported.
Casual dining and midscale full service restaurants continued to experience traffic declines. Casual dining visits were down 2 percent and traffic to midscale restaurants was down 3 percent.
Working Safely
By: Steve Sayer
Where more is meant than meets the ear
(As if your human resource department doesn’t already enough to do or be anxious about, here’s an abridged rundown highlighting the minimal requirements of federal OSHA’s occupational noise exposure standard at the general workplace.
Surprisingly, there are a number of dissimilar health hazards that are caused from protracted exposure to high levels of noise over varying lengths of time.
Say what? Okay, the bad news is that studies have indelibly evinced that when workers are exposed to high noise levels it can often result with elevated blood pressure, heart disease, increased stress, ringing in the ears, tinnitus, permanent hearing loss, birth defects, and workplace accidents. The good news is that all of the above is one-hundred percent preventable.
A written program is required by federal OSHA whenever it is established that employee noise exposure equals or exceeds an 8-hour time-weighted average sound level of 85 dB (decibels, A- scale). The program should include, at minimum, the following areas below.
Engineering controls requiring that feasible administrative (which simply means capable of being done) or appropriate engineering controls be put into place to lower the noise level. If such controls fails to lower sound levels, then hearing protector devices (HPD’s) must be provided by the employer to reduce prohibitive sound levels to tolerant levels as established by OSHA.
Testing, monitoring & individual employee notification is to be conducted when any employee’s exposure level equals or exceeds the previously mentioned 8-hour time-weighted average of 85 dB. A baseline audiogram must be established within 6 months of initial exposure for each individual employee, including annual hearing tests to accurately monitor and document the hearing fitness of the affected employee.
The audiograms must be evaluated by an audiologist or physician and paid by the employer. The exposure measurement must include all continuous, intermittent, and impulsive noise levels within an 80 dB to 130 dB range that must be taken during a typical work situation. In addition, employers are required to perform updated monitoring whenever changes are made in production that may amplify noise levels. Recordkeeping by employers is required of each employee’s exposure measurements with a record-retention of 2 years.
HPD’s are to be furnished and paid by employers (including replacements) and must be made available to all employees who are exposed to excessive noise and time duration levels. There are several types of HPD’s that have been designed for dissimilar environments. Employees are required to use and care for the HPD’s as trained. The employer is responsible for the enforcing the use, care and storage of HPD’s.
As part of each company’s program, OSHA requires the documentation of immediate corrective actions taken whenever hearing aptitude has worsened to an employee as well as documenting annual training for affected employees as to the effects of noise on their hearing by the means of audiometric testing. When requested, employee access to their individual test results must be furnished by the employer.
What type of HPD’s are utilized at your establishment? When was the last time you performed a sound level survey at your establishment?
meatingplace.com
December 14, 2010
