FARGO – Every weekday in an elementary school kitchen here, a worker fills a plastic tray with the day's lunch offerings and seals, labels and places it in a freezer – all in the name of food safety.

A similar process goes on for every meal at the Cass County Jail and at a facility in Dilworth, where food for Clay County Jail inmates is prepared. The meals are saved for about a week. When the oldest tray comes out, a new one goes in.

The jails and Fargo Public Schools are among a handful of institutions in the Fargo-Moorhead area that collect a sample tray in the event of a foodborne illness outbreak. If two or more people get sick after eating the same meal, a tray of food can be retrieved and tested for pathogens such as salmonella, norovirus or E. coli.

Deb Laber, director of nutrition services at Fargo schools, said the district began making a "fail safe tray" last year at Bennett Elementary; Fargo North High School was added this year.

"We thought it was a good idea if someone was trying to prove that we served, you know, terrible food," Laber said. "If we are guilty, it's good information to have."

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Laber said the decision was made not because of problems but because of the sheer size of the district with its 21 elementary, middle and high schools. Since all food served to students and staff is prepared in the district's central kitchen downtown, Laber doesn't need samples from every school. She instead chose one southside and one northside facility.

The process isn't common for local schools. The Moorhead School District doesn't have a similar policy in place, and an official with West Fargo Public Schools said they've only collected entrée samples a handful of times after reports of a student not feeling well after eating lunch.

Capt. Andrew Frobig, administrator at the Cass County Jail, said it is common, though, in his line of work.

"It's an industry practice," Frobig said.

'Dead man's tray'

Known in some circles as a sample or dummy tray, this food-safety process is commonly referred to in jails and prisons as a "dead man's tray." In fact, one website that sells food service products to corrections facilities advertises a "Dead Man Box," a large metal box that can store trays with lids.

Besides saving food in the event of contamination, Frobig said the Cass County Jail also saves food in case of intentional tampering or if an inmate complains that the jail isn't serving what's advertised on the menu and files a grievance.

He said the only time they've had to retrieve food from the freezer for testing was after an illness outbreak on Nov. 28, 2011, when about 90 percent of the 184 jail inmates became ill with vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps.

Even so, the mystery was never solved, said Grant Larson, director of environmental health at Fargo Cass Public Health.

"You'd think it would be a slam dunk with a 'dead man's plate,' " Larson said. "We still didn't pinpoint the exact cause."

There was, however, a comment at the end of the report about 40-pound blocks of frozen turkey the jail had received. An inmate cook had expressed concerns about the difficulty and length of time it took to thaw the meat.

Larson said it's often not the food itself that's to blame in an outbreak. There can be a problem with cross-contamination and food not being stored or cooked properly, or a food server who's sick with an intestinal virus can easily spread it to others.

Ruling out one cause

Minimizing the number of foodborne illnesses in the U.S. is a difficult and serious job. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases each year. Young children and elderly adults are the most susceptible.

The Forum contacted several nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in the area, and none said they had a "sample tray" policy in place. But one facility in Fargo stays away from raw meats and other fresh foods as a precaution.

"We buy most of our food pre-packaged, pre-cooked to get away from the risk," said Michael Pfeifer, president and CEO of Villa Maria.

An official with Sanford Health said it is researching a procedure that will involve samples of large batches of food from its central kitchen, to coincide with the 2017 opening of its new medical center in south Fargo.

Troy Thomson, food service director at A'viands, which prepares food for the Clay County Jail, said a sample tray policy is a starting point to protect the company and everyone in the facility.

"It helps rule out one cause of illness, to look in another direction if necessary," Thomson said.