(1) Nutritious meals and snacks must be provided to children in such quality and quantity to meet the national research council or the USDA child and adult care food program recommended dietary allowances for children of each age. Minimum nutritional requirements, age appropriate, will be supplied to the provider by the state or county health department.

(2) The above requirement in (1) shall be deemed to have been met if the provider provides nutritious meals and snacks as follows:

(a) children in care for a continuous period of five hours to ten hours shall be provided at least one meal appropriate to the time of day and two snacks; or

(b) children in care for a continuous period of 10 hours or more shall be provided at least one meal every six hours and one snack between meals. The six hours requirement does not apply during the hours that the child is sleeping when night care is provided; or

(c) children in care for two to six hours shall be provided one snack every 2 1/2 hours.

(3) Special diet orders must be kept on file by the provider as submitted to the provider in writing by parents.

(4) For the child requiring a rigid diet, food shall be brought from home and labeled clearly.

(5) Menu plans shall be available to parent upon request.

(6) A record of food served shall be kept on file for at least one month.

(7) Meal and snack service to children and the preparation of food by children shall be carefully supervised.

(8) Fresh drinking water shall be available to children and offered at frequent intervals.

(9) Proper methods of handling, preparing, and serving food in a safe and sanitary manner shall be consistently implemented by the provider.