United States Department of Agriculture

Food and Nutrition Service

Southeast Region

 

Policy Memorandum 250.14-01:  Donated Food Losses Due to Improper Temperature Controls

 

This memorandum is a restatement of policy previously issued as Food Distribution Policy Memorandum 97-13 on February 26, 1997.  Any changes made to the original text are in bold.

 

This memorandum is intended to clarify our policy regarding liability for lost donated foods due to improper temperature controls.

 

In the past several years, nearly 100 percent of donated food loss claims submitted to this office with lack of proper temperature control given as the cause for the loss have cited the date of the loss to be on a holiday, over a weekend, or during the summer months.  These findings were unexpected since it has been the long-standing recommendation of the Food and Nutrition Service that recipient agencies check and record temperatures on a daily basis, as well as providing for daily year-round monitoring to prevent losses during periods of school closure, including weekends and holidays.

 

Lacking any mitigating circumstances, FNS considers all losses attributed to inadequate temperature control to be cause by negligence, and therefore, subject to a claim.  When such a loss occurs, the burden of proof is on the recipient agency to demonstrate that the lack of proper temperature control was not due to its negligence.

 

Since recipient agencies that check and record temperatures daily, during and outside of the normal work week, will discover freezer malfunctions and power outages timely, take corrective action, and reduce overall losses, we will no longer accept as ground for a no-claim determination that a loss occurred on a holiday, weekend, or during the summer.  Should a recipient agency decide not to conduct daily temperature monitoring and ultimately suffer a loss, it must assume the responsibility and the liability for repayment or replacement.

 

To reinforce this policy, we suggest you establish a daily temperature checking requirement within your State.