CenterPilot Webinar: CN Labels

This conference will now be recorded. Okay, everyone. Welcome to the CenterPilot webinar on CN labels. CenterPilot is all about compliance, and one of the ways that we increase our compliance is by the use of CN labeled foods. CN labeled foods are entered with the number included into CenterPilot, so that staff of centers may easily determine if the food is first already in CenterPilot, and include the correct foods into their menus.

These foods and their corresponding numbers correctly print on the milk production records so that sites and sponsors can fly through administrative reviews with the state. There is still some responsibility that falls on the sponsor and the site. So let's review, first of all, the CN label program itself, how it works in CenterPilot, and what information sites and sponsors need to have on-site or on file. The CN label program gives food manufacturers the option to include a standardized food crediting statement on their product label.

Labels must be authorized by USDA prior to use, and manufacturers must have approved quality control procedures and inspection oversight that meets FNS requirements. And FNS is the Food and Nutrition Service component of the USDA. Products produced in accordance with the CN labeling program are generally purchased by food service providers for USDA meal programs. This means that vendors that sell to childcare centers and schools are typically where you will find CN labeled products.

CN labeled products are normally main dish products or entrees, which contribute to the meat or meat alternate component of the meal pattern requirements. Some CN labeled products are combination dishes. For example, pizza, which will provide both the meat/meat alternate and the grains component of a meal. Other products include such products as chicken legs, beef patties, et cetera, and those products contribute only to the meat or meat alternate component.

To be awarded a CN label, eligible products must first be produced under federal inspection by USDA, which is United States Department of Agriculture, or USDC, United States Department of Commerce, per what is called the CN Labeling Memorandum of Understanding. These foods must have the contribution toward the meal pattern requirements determined using yields in the USDA Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs. CN labels are voluntary for food manufacturers, and there are four parts to the CN label. So let's go ahead and look at that.

Okay. The first item that must be on a CN label is the name of the product, and you can see on this document, this is an actual CN label from Fernando's Cheese and Bean Burrito. That is the name of the product. The second is an ingredient statement, and you can see that that is included. The third is the CN logo box, and this is a rectangular box that has CN on all four sides. That is the CN logo, and inside the box it surrounds the meal pattern contribution statement. And then finally, there must be an inspection legend.

And on this one it's just wording, but on this one you can see it's an actual icon. So in CenterPilot, if there is a food that you wish to serve and it is a new food, perhaps your vendor has suggested that you serve it, you need to first determine if it is in CenterPilot. So we will be working with this product. It's Fernando's Whole Grain Cheese and Bean Burrito. The product number is two one two zero zero, and the CN label number is zero nine seven zero eight four.

So let's take a look at CenterPilot, and let's determine how you can determine if this food is already in CenterPilot. I am logging in as a site, not a sponsor, but both centers and sponsors have access to our CN label list. So if you click on the home tab and select current CN label list, and then get report. When the list loads, there are two different things that you could do. You can search directly in this list, or you can download and search. So let's start by searching before we download. So there is a magnifying glass.

Click on that, and then search by any product or CN label number, or even a generic food name, or a brand, or manufacturer. So first, let's put in the product number, because let's just say we don't know what the CN label number is. So we're going to put in two one two zero zero, and you will see that the report has already found it. Here is the whole grain burrito part, and then if you click on the second option, here's the meat part. So the product number is in the second column on the CN label list.

If you know the CN label number and prefer to search by that, in this case, it's zero nine seven zero eight four And you can see that it shows up four times in the list. Again, we start with the whole grain burrito, and it's going to show up... And I know this might be a little hard to see, so bear with me. It'll show up in the name of the product and in the CN label number column. And you can just scroll through, and then we see it in the meat as a part of the name of the product, and then again in the CN label column.

If you were to download this same document, you may also search from a downloaded document. I download it as PDF, and you can still search within the document. So for me, if you can see way up in the right-hand side of my screen, I did a Command+F, and it may be different on your computer, but that's how I bring up a search box on my PDFs. And you can see I've already searched for this CN label 097084, and it is highlighted here.

And this search box also tells you that it's there in the document four times, so you can scroll through and find it all four times. You can also search by the product number, so 21200, and it shows up twice, and it just automatically goes to that number. So if you can't remember any of the numbers, but you know it was Fernando's, you can search by that. And you can see Fernando's is in here eight times, so you can just scroll through till you find the burrito that you're looking for.

And even more generically, you can search by burrito, and you can see that burrito is in this list 28 times. So that is how you can search both inside CenterPilot and outside CenterPilot when you download the document. com. And we have our CN label library. So you will just highlight CN labels and bring up the CN label Excel list. And there is a password for the first time that you log in. [Password redacted from this transcript.]

I can put my cursor anywhere in here to do a search, and then I just do my Command+F again, and a search box comes up. So once again, if I put the product number in and I say "find next" or "find all," it found it for me. And I'm just going to say "find next" so it'll take me to it. And here it is. So then here is the product number. I can also search by the CN label number. And you can see that it found it. And the same things. You can search by really any word.

Here's all of the Fernando's products, and then you can go through one at a time by find next. And then you can also search by burrito. Find all, and then find next. So those are the ways that you can find out if your product is already in CenterPilot. If your product is not in CenterPilot or you can't find it, then you can have it added to CenterPilot. But keep in mind that sometimes the CN label number changes. So if you cannot find it by CN label number, try by product number or by something else.

Some products have more than one CN label, and CN labels expire every five years, and so when they are updated, they are renumbered. So if the product is not in CenterPilot, you can collect the proper required documentation and submit it to your sponsor, who will then forward it on to us so that we can add that product to CenterPilot. What you need to submit are... And I'm going to go ahead and show you on a markup sheet. Okay, so this sheet will show you some of the information that we need.

So we will need the name of the product, and this could be the front of the package, or it can be from a web document, such as this one. The name of the food manufacturer vendor. So the product name is Whole Grain Cheese and Bean Burrito. Fernando's is the vendor. The product number is 21200. The ingredient list needs to be submitted, and here it is on the CN label itself, and then also on the page before the CN label. The nutrition facts label, which is this portion here.

And if there is a CN label, then the information from the CN label, including the CN label number, which is in the right upper hand corner of the CN logo. So this is the information that we need. Also in the middle, you will see the instructions on how much needs to be served. So you can take pictures of an actual product if you have it at your site, or you can go to the website like I did and download the information to submit. Just make sure that you have enough information so that we can enter it into CenterPilot for you.

You can also verify CN label numbers directly with USDA if you wonder if it is a correct number or if it has expired. There is a CN label verification report, and it doesn't really work to give you the actual website to go to or the link because every time they update it, the link changes. So you just need to Google USDA CN label verification report. Again, I'm going to do my Command+F And you can search in the same way in this PDF report, except I don't think they have product numbers in here.

So in this case, we have a CN label in front of us, so we're just going to put in the number. And it will update and tell you that there's one in here, and it will take you to that number. Here's the number, here's the product. Here's all of the CN label information, and then the expiration is here as well. So this is one of the ways that we verify that the CN label is current. If we can find it in this list, then that validates it for us. Also notice with CN labels that they are all six-digit numbers, and they always begin with a zero.

The second digit is usually, at this point, a nine, and as they continue going up in numbers, I don't know what they will do after nine, but they will probably go to the first digit being a one. There are a few that are still left in the program or validated that are 07 or 08, but most of them now are 09, and it's a six-digit number. So let's also go and check out some of the CN label information in CenterPilot. Let's talk about when you're creating your meals and how to make sure that you pull in the CN product correctly.

So we're going to go to our meal calendar for this week. And hopefully you can see this, but this happens to be today, which is February 25th. We are serving that burrito. So in our calendar, our lunch name is All Whole Grain Burrito, Corn, Apples, and Milk. And if you know that you can do this, you can actually double-click on your calendar, and you can see the components that are brought in. So you can see that we brought in Fernando's Cheese and Bean Burrito, and here is the CN label number.

We brought that in as the whole grain tortilla and as the meat. So you will see it show up twice. So that is one place where you can see it. You can also see it by going to your pre-saved meals and viewing that meal. And then you can also see it in your meal production record. So I already have the meal production record for today up. So for today, again, here's the lunch for today with the burrito, with the CN label number. So this is the meat component, and down here is the grain component.

So in CenterPilot, just remember that there are some CN labeled food components that also allow you to claim part of the vegetable, like an eighth of a cup of vegetable per serving. But in CenterPilot, we do not include the vegetable. We do include the meat and the grain if there is enough grain to claim. So one thing you want to notice from the meal production record is that there may be different amounts of the product for the meat component and for the grain component.

So if you'll look at the meat component for the number of participants in each age group, which for today, there's 25 in each age group, 25 one-year-olds, 25 two-year-olds, 25 three to five-year-olds, and 25 schoolers, 6 through 12. And for that number of students, we are to open a whole package of the burritos, which is 96 count. And so we understand that that's not going to add up to 100 like it should, so what we're going to do is show you how CenterPilot does the calculations.

But first, I want to point out that when you look down at the grain component for the same number of students, CenterPilot is saying to open half a package. And so now let's go look at how this is calculated. Okay, so according to the CN label for Fernando's Cheese and Bean Burritos, CN label 097084, inside the logo, it tells us that each four and a half ounce burrito provides two ounce equivalent meat alternate and two ounce equivalent grains for the child nutrition programs. So one burrito gives us two ounce meat and two ounce grains.

Let's look at how CenterPilot is going to calculate this. Keep in mind that CenterPilot calculates the least amount per age group. So according to the meal pattern guidelines, a one and two-year-old needs one ounce of meat and a half an ounce of grain. A three to five-year-old needs one and a half ounce of meat and a half an ounce of grain. The six-year-old or the schooler needs two ounce meat and one ounce of grain. And so do the at-risk after schoolers up through age 18, two and one.

But the adults need two ounces of meat and two ounces of grain. So if you have adult centers, one burrito would actually serve a correct adult portion with two ounces of meat and two ounces of grain. How is CenterPilot going to calculate these burritos? So I hope you can see this okay. We have a grid here. So what we have done is we've taken the meat alternate, and we know that the one and two-year-olds both need one ounce, and there are 25 of each, so that's 50 students. So we need 50 ounces of meat.

One ounce, because the burrito is two ounce, one burrito gives you two ounces of meat. One ounce would be one half of a burrito times the 50 students, which would be 25 burritos. So it's not going to calculate one burrito per child. It's going to calculate based on the ounce. So we'll talk about what you need to do if you're going to serve one per child. The three to five-year-olds, there are 25 of them, and they need one and a half ounce of meat. So take that times 25, and that's 37 and a half ounces.

One and a half ounce is three-fourths of a burrito, times 25 is 18 and three-quarters burritos. The schoolers need two ounces, and there are 25 of them, so that's 50 ounces. Two ounces, one burrito. So since there's 25, they need 25 burritos. And so that's a total, when you add it up, of 137 ounces of meat. And then we'll calculate the grains. So the one and two-year-olds need a half an ounce of grain. There are 50 of them, so that's 25 ounces.

The three to five-year-olds also need a half an ounce of grain, which is a fourth of burrito, times 50, which... I'm sorry. A half an ounce is 25 ounces of meat, but it is a fourth of a burrito. So when you do the calculations, it is 12 and a half burritos to get the grain. Notice that it's 25 burritos to get the meat. The three to five-year-olds need half an ounce, so that's 12 and a half ounces, and six and a fourth burritos when you do the calculations. And then the schoolers need 25 ounces of grain. They need a whole ounce of grain.

But since the burrito, one burrito, has two ounces of grain, that's 12 and a half burritos. So they need 62 and a half ounces of grain equivalent for this number of students. So when you add everything up for the meat, you need 68 and three-fourths burritos. And for the grains, you need 31 and a fourth burritos. So this is the way it's going to be calculated in CenterPilot. And this is why we do the math for you, so you don't have to do this chart and figure all of that out.

If everybody is going to get one burrito, including the younger kids, then of course you're going to count just one for each, and that's 100 burritos. Now remember, we need 69 burritos according to CenterPilot, but CenterPilot's going to round up to the next half package. So let's go back to the meal production record. And that's why it says to open one package of 96, because we needed 69 and it rounded up to the next half package. We needed 30-something, if you can remember, of grain, and it's going to round up to half a package there.

So make sure that you're serving the whole package to make sure you have enough meat. And then if you do need 100 burritos, notice that this package only has 96, if you're going to give everybody one. Now most likely, you're going to have four schoolers that don't show up, and if that's the case, you have the exact amount. But normally you want to plan a little more than the actual amount needed. So that is the way the meal production records work in CenterPilot with a CN labeled food.

To pass a sponsor review, it is required by USDA that you actually have the original case label. On our website, we have the labels, and that's the other thing that we need to point out. And we're actually going to look up a different label here. So let me go ahead and find that. And I don't think it liked it. Okay, so now we found the product. com, in the very last column, you can actually view and print the document. So in this case, this is a document that is not a CN label. So we'll come back and discuss this document in just a moment.

I just wanted you to see that you can pull up the labels in CenterPilot. So for one that does have a CN label, you can see the actual CN label if we have it in here. And there is the CN label on that one. " So I have confirmed online that for child nutrition programs, you can use something that has a watermark, a CN label with a watermark, but only if you attach it to an invoice. So you want to make sure that you're attaching it to an invoice that shows that you've purchased enough of the product.

If you just joined us, if you could go ahead and mute, there's a lot of background noise. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So, the reason there is a watermark, manufacturers may use a CN label with a watermark when the CN logo and contribution statement are on product information that are not the actual product carton itself. So, like on the website. And a watermark CN label is acceptable documentation when it's attached to an invoice.

The other reason to attach things to an invoice or if you're in review to have that information available is because the invoice is what verifies to the reviewer that you actually did purchase enough of the product. So now let's go back and look at the one that we just printed off or brought up from the website. If you have a product that has a product specification, but it is not a CN labeled product, if you have information like this that you can get from the website or from your vendor, then this can also be entered as a CN labeled product.

Notice this is an advanced PIR, and it's a product analysis form for CN products and non-CN labeled products. So as long as they've taken information from the food buying guide and they've calculated the creditable amounts, and then they have a certification statement at the bottom saying that, yes, according to our calculations this will meet the requirements for X amount of ounces of meat and/or grains. And then it must be signed by someone from the food manufacturer.

So, this may also count towards a creditable product that doesn't actually have a CN label. com, to use the CN label list, the first time you log in, and sometimes it will revert back to asking for a password. You do need a password. [Password redacted from this transcript.] And again, you can use it for many different things. You can search by CN label, by product number, by the manufacturer or vendor, or generically by burrito or pizza.

And also, if you do bring up a product and you can see that we don't have the actual case label, but you do happen to have it, we would really appreciate it if you would just send it to us, and we will include it on the website. So that is the end of the CN label webinar. I am going to stop the recording.

Transcript generated from the video’s captions.