250.16—Maintenance of records.
(a) General requirements.
(1)
Accurate and complete records shall be maintained with respect to the receipt, distribution/use and inventory of donated foods including:
(ii)
The determination made as to liability for any improper distribution, use of, loss of, or damage to, such foods and the results obtained from the pursuit of claims by the distributing agency.
Such records shall also be maintained with respect to the receipt and disbursement of funds arising from the operation of the distribution program, including the determination as to the amount of payments to be made by any processor, upon termination of processing contracts.
(2)
Distributing agencies shall require all subdistributing agencies to maintain accurate and complete records with respect to the receipt, distribution/disposal, and inventory of donated foods, including end products processed from donated foods. Subdistributing agencies and recipient agencies must document any funds that arise from the operation of the distribution program, including refunds made to recipient agencies by a processor in accordance with § 250.30(k). Further, these documents should allow an independent determination of the specific accounts that benefit from these funds.
(3)
Unless a distributing agency maintains an offer-and-acceptance system in accordance with § 250.48(e), the distributing agency shall maintain accurate and complete records with respect to amounts and value of commodities refused by school food authorities. School food authorities shall also be required to maintain such records of refusals.
(4)
Each processor, food service management company, warehouse, or other entity which contracts with a distributing agency, subdistributing agency or recipient agency shall be required to keep accurate and complete records with respect to the receipt, distribution/disposal, storage and inventory of such foods similar to those required of distributing agencies under this paragraph. Where donated foods have been commingled with commercial foods, the processor shall maintain records which permit an accurate determination of the donated-food inventory. The processor shall also be required to keep formula, recipes, daily or batch production records, loadout sheets, bills of lading, and other processing and shipping records to substantiate the use made of such foods and their subsequent redelivery, in whatever form, to any distributing agency, subdistributing agency or recipient agency. Processors must maintain records which will permit a determination regarding compliance with the contracting provisions required by § 250.30(f) (3) and (4) as well as maintain records used as the basis for compiling the processor performance reports required by § 250.30(m).
(5)
All recipient agencies shall be required to keep accurate and complete records showing the data and method used to determine the number of eligible persons served by that agency.
(6)
Failure by a distributing agency, subdistributing agency, recipient agency, processor, food service management company, warehouse or other entity to maintain records required by this Section shall be considered prima facie evidence of improper distribution or loss of donated foods and the agency, processor or entity shall be subject to the provisions of § 250.13(e).
(b) Length of maintenance.
All records required by this Section shall be retained for a period of three years from the close of the fiscal year to which they pertain. However, in instances when claims action and/or audit findings have not been resolved, the records shall be retained as long as required for the resolution of such action or findings.