FNS advances food safety education and practices in federal nutrition assistance programs through research conducted by the Center for Food Safety in Child Nutrition Programs (the Center). To better understand food safety concerns associated with fresh produce and farm to school activities, the Center conducted a study.

The WIC Vendor Management Study: 2015 Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) Pilot examined compliance with program requirements and rates of violations among WIC EBT vendors in 2015 and tested a method to identify and measure errors that contribute to improper payments in an EBT environment.

FNS is committed to providing WIC participants with access to a variety of safe and healthy foods, including infant formula, and strongly encourages WIC state agencies to take expedient action to ensure that WIC participants can exchange recalled product on hand, and can use WIC benefits in their EBT balance or on paper WIC food instruments to purchase product that has not been recalled

This report examines the impact of using Medicaid data to directly certify students for free and reduced-price school meals in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs in 15 states in school year 2017-18. Certification, participation and reimbursement outcomes for Cohort 1 states in their second year of implementation and Cohort 2 states in their first year of implementation are discussed.

The Study of Food Safety Needs of Adult Day Care Centers in the Child and Adult Care Food Program report identified and evaluated food safety knowledge gaps and education needs of adult day care center program operators. Overall, this study provides information on knowledge gaps related to food safety practices in adult day care centers and illuminates the best way for center staff to receive future food safety training and information support.

The biennial WIC Participant and Program Characteristics Report describes a census of all participants in WIC. The most recent report (PC 2016) reflects state management information systems data from April 2016, and this Food Package Report is a supplemental analysis of that data. While PC 2016 summarizes participant characteristics, this report summarizes the food packages, or prescriptions, that state agencies issued to these participants.

WIC Participant and Program Characteristics 2016 (PC 2016) summarizes the demographic characteristics of participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nationwide in April 2016. It includes information on participant income and nutrition risk characteristics, estimates breastfeeding initiation rates for WIC infants, and describes WIC members of migrant farm-worker families. PC 2016 is the most recent in a series of reports generated from WIC state management information system data biennially since 1992.

Authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill, the USDA Pilot Project for Procurement of Unprocessed Fruits and Vegetables was designed to provide states with additional flexibility in the procurement of unprocessed fruits and vegetables. Participating states and school food authorities can purchase approved items with existing USDA Foods National School Lunch Program entitlement funds from any USDA Pilot-authorized vendor in support of the school meal standards.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of state agencies current peer group systems, and to provide guidance to state agencies on how to evaluate and update their systems. Specifically, it uses empirical analysis to identify one or more effective models for establishing vendor peer groups that could apply to most state agencies.

This report assesses that pilot and includes a qualitative evaluation of the vendor and ITO experiences and an assessment of pilot costs.