Monitor the safety of healthy foods the same way you monitor the safety of any other food. If necessary, remind donors that you are unable to accept spoiled or damaged food.
What you can do today
- Review basic food safety considerations for donations: Cooking Matters in Your Food Pantry (pp. 12)
- Get familiar with safety considerations for growers: Garden Gleaning: A Toolkit for Growers and Food Shelves
How Extension Can Help
Connect with the food safety team to answer your food safety questions: Food safety program team
- Identify healthy food
- Source healthy food
- Work with local growers
- Store Healthy Foods Properly
- Work with limited storage space
- Drive selection of healthy foods
- Provide practical information
- Find healthy recipes
- Enlist volunteers' help
- Include healthy foods in your backpack program
- Do cooking demonstrations
- Develop a healthy food policy
- Fund your healthy eating initiatives
Download the complete document: Promoting healthy eating at food shelves (PDF).
Related resources
Food Product Dating — Food Safety and Inspection Service, United States Department of Agriculture — Review background information on questions such as, "Are dates required on food products?" and "Does it mean the product will be unsafe to use after that date?" English | español
Receiving Food Products — Minnesota Department of Health — Find out the expectations when receiving food products, including product quality, packaging, receiving temperatures, and more.
Reviewed in 2018