K-PAC-Food-safety

The regulations for food and beverage sales in schools will come into effect January 2008 for elementary schools and September 2008 for middle and secondary schools.

The Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in BC Schools are a set of minimum standards that school districts are required to implement in their respective schools, as part of the government's directive to remove junk food from school food sales; however, unlike the Tobacco Control Act, the Guidelines are not legislation and therefore don't involve regulations and enforcement per se. Each school district will be overseeing the integration of the Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales for their respective schools, and is required to report back to the Ministry through their Achievement Contracts. Questions and concerns about implementation of the Guidelines within a particular school district should be directed to the district office.

The Guidelines only apply to food and beverage items that are "sold" to students. They do not apply to food that students bring from home.

Schools can share information about healthy lunches/snacks with students and parents, but teachers should not be removing food items from student lunch boxes on the basis that they do not meet the Guideline requirements.

The Guidelines apply to any food or beverages sold to students as well as non-students within the school grounds and at school-organized events off the school grounds (e.g., track meets), regardless of the organizing group.

The new regulations can be found at: http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/health/guidelines_sales07.pdf

"VANCOUVER - Two of Canada's major retailers said Tuesday they are pulling plastic water and baby bottles that contain the controversial chemical bisphenol A, in anticipation of Health Canada labelling it a dangerous substance.

The Forzani Group Ltd., Canada's largest sporting goods retailer, and Hudson's Bay Co., which includes the Bay and Zellers stores, said Tuesday they are removing BPA products and will refund customers who bought the bottles at their stores.

"Pending the government announcement, the company will immediately move to clear all 94 Bay stores and 280 Zellers stores of BPA baby products, and effective immediately, HBC will no longer sell any baby feeding products that are not BPA-free at any of its stores," the company said in an e-mail to The Canadian Press.

Bob Sartor, chief executive officer of Forzani, which has more than 500 stores across Canada under such banners as Sport Check, Athlete's World and Coast Mountain Sports, said the company began removing the water bottles early Tuesday.

Last year, Mountain Equipment Co-op removed plastic bottles containing BPA from its shelves, while Lululemon Athletica Inc. said all new water bottles arriving in its stores this year would be free of the chemical.

A Globe and Mail report that Health Canada is expected to announce the finding against BPA on Wednesday was "sufficient cause to take the high road and get it off the shelf," Sartor said in an interview.

"We are doing this out of an overabundance of caution." ..."

from

"Nalgene water bottles have long been a trusty earth friendly alternative to using disposable water bottles. These virtually indestructible bottles are made of hard plastic, come in varying sizes and colors, and have long been trendy sports accessory .

Yet recently, amid concern about a hormone-mimicking chemical used in Nalgenes several retailers (including Patagonia and the Canadian Mountain Equipment Co-op) to remove Nalgene and other polycarbonate plastic containers from store shelves.

Ben Dobbin of the Boston Globe reports that "There is little dispute that the chemical can disrupt the hormonal system, but scientists differ markedly on whether very low doses found in food and beverage containers can be harmful. The US Food and Drug Administration sides with the plastics industry that BPA-based products do not pose a health risk."

A panel of researchers at a US government conference reported that the potential for BPA to affect human health is a concern, and more research is needed."

"Polycarbonates are a particular group of thermoplastic polymers, whose primary building block is bisphenol A (BPA), a hormone disrupter that releases into food and liquid^[6] and acts like estrogen. Research in Environmental Health Perspectives finds that BPA (leached from the lining of tin cans, dental sealants and polycarbonate bottles) can increase body weight of lab animals' offspring, as well as impact hormone levels. A more recent animal study suggests that even low-level exposure to BPA results in insulin resistance, which can lead to inflammation and heart disease."
from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastics#Negative_health_effects

The new grade 10 planning course includes 'Food Safety' and parents will be invited to form a focus group

Our guest was Dr. Alejandro Rojas who is the principal investigator for a project by Faculty of Agriculture students at UBC who will be coming into some of our classrooms in November. His students are looking at community-based sustainable food systems, focussing on the ecology of food in the school.

Our staff guest was Susan Mullard, from our Fine Arts Department. Ms. Mullard is one of our teachers involved in the development of the new Planning 10 curriculum. The Food Safety study will be incorporated in this course, as well as many new initiatives. Parents of Grades 8, 9 and 10 students will have found Ms. Mullard's talk particularly relevant.

http://www.lookingglassbc.com
The looking Glass Foundation is focused on assisting adolescents with eating disorders, particularly in creating residential options for them.

Healthy Foods Legislation