Partnership for Food Safety Education

FightBAC!

Be Aware & Prepare: Your Home Food Safety

By Shelley Feist, Executive Director, Partnership for Food Safety Education

In recent research released by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (Year 3 findings), 53% of respondents to a national survey reported having someone at higher risk of foodborne illness in their household.

Someone at higher risk could be a young child, an elderly person, a pregnant family member, or a loved one with a chronic underlying health condition, like diabetes.

What might be different about a household where one or more people in the home are immune-compromised or otherwise at risk for foodborne illness?

Ideally, food safety would be top-of-mind for everyone in the household. Ideally, in that household, consistency in safe food handling and proper hand hygiene would be a shared priority.  

Recently I became aware of unpublished survey results from a health organization showing that, even after experiencing a gastrointestinal illness, a large majority of people surveyed said they would not do anything differently in handling food.  

People who work in food safety education are constantly working to learn more about the blocks and the motivators to home safe food handling practices. Do those of us who work in consumer education have something to learn from what’s going on in the food industry around developing a strong internal “food safety culture”? 

The FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety says that “a strong food safety culture is a prerequisite to effective food safety management,” and that commitments are needed to  “foster, support, and strengthen food safety culture on farms, in food facilities and in homes.”     

If you or someone in your home is at increased risk for serious foodborne illness, it’s worth taking time with your loved ones to define what food safety means for your household. 

Foster food safety at home

  • Have a family discussion about values around day-to-day practices for hand hygiene, safe food handling and surface cleaning. What does everyone agree to? Can you make sure everyone plays a role?
  • What does it mean to be immunocompromised in your household? Is everyone in the home considering the potential impacts if a family member were to get a foodborne illness?

Support food safety at home

  • Post in your kitchen the Core Four Fight BAC!® food safety practices.
  • Agee that all household members always wash their hands before sitting down to eat a meal.
  • Consider the risks of some foods that might be favorites in household. Could you modify some family food favorites in the interest of reducing risk?

Strengthen food safety at home

  • Use safe recipes. Ask your favorite recipe providers to adopt the Safe Recipe Style Guide.  
  • Consistently use a digital food thermometer for safety and quality.
  • Always use soap and running water to wash hands.
  • Make kitchen surface cleaning and sanitizing a priority.
  • If you share your kitchen with pets, be sure to separate pet feeding areas from surfaces where you prepare family meals.

Your at-home food safety culture is to be aware and be prepared. Reducing risk of foodborne illness at home is fundamental to your family’s enjoyment of delicious, healthy foods.  

UPCOMING PRESENTATION

Federal Leaders Talk about Food Safety and the Health of Americans
Wednesday, March 10
12:15 to 1:15 p.m. EST

The idea of food safety culture throughout our food chain — including at the family dinner table — will be explored by leading food safety experts from the U.S. federal agencies and leading universities. Join us for a panel of federal leaders to talk about food safety and the health of Americans.  

Frank Yiannas, Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, will address food safety culture and the “New Era of Smarter Food Safety.”  

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

The 2021 Consumer Food Safety Education Virtual Conference, March 9-12, 2021, sponsored by the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education, is the only conference in the U.S. dedicated to consumer food safety education. For more conference information and to register, please visit fightbac.org/virtual.

Food Delivered with a Side of Safety

By Shelley Feist, Executive Director, Partnership for Food Safety Education

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly everyone made changes in how they purchase food and prepared meals. Concerns about in-store shopping and a scarcity of essential items gave rise to a new or increased reliance on delivery options. 

According to Nielsen IQ, online food and beverage sales — including grocery and restaurant online delivery — jumped 125% over the 52 weeks ending Nov. 30, 2020. 

New research by the Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) looks at the households that are using delivery options, and whether users of food delivery report taking care to handle delivered food safely.

The PFSE survey looked at three home food delivery services:

  • Meal kits: pre-portioned food ingredients and recipes delivered to  subscribers. 
  • Grocery delivery: home delivery from local grocery stores, including through third-party delivery companies
  • Prepared food delivery: home delivery of carryout, ready-to-eat food.


Studies over time have shown that poor or inconsistent food handling practices and improper handwashing can contribute to foodborne illness at home. 

The prevention benefits of handwashing and hand sanitizer have been highlighted since the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic in the United States.  

The Partnership set out to understand more about the households that use food delivery and also how people handled home-delivered meal kits, prepared food, and groceries. A total of 657 consumers completed the self-report survey containing both multiple-choice and open-ended questions.  Demographic information was also collected.

Survey questions included:

  • What type of food delivery service have you used?
  • How often do you use food delivery service?
  • How do you handle food after delivery?
  • How do you handle perishable food items?
  • Do you wash your hands before handling food?
  • Do you sanitize your food packaging?


Results revealed:

  • 38% wash their hands 20 seconds or longer
  • 56% sanitize their food packaging
    • 44% with antibacterial or alcohol wipes
    • 6% with hand sanitizer
    • 5% with soap and water
    • 4% with bleach
    • 1% with vinegar


Respondent’s demographic data showed:

  • 51% female and 49% male
  • 57% had no children living at home
  • 18% had one or two children at home
  • 31% were over age 55
  • 45% had a household income over $60K


Findings about the households that use delivery services will help guide the development of a PFSE food delivery outreach effort later in 2021.  

This campaign will leverage the marketing channels of PFSE Partners in the food industry, and food delivery specifically.  The objectives of this effort include:  

  • To raise consumer awareness around home safe handling of delivered foods in all forms – grocery, prepared food, and meal kits.
  • To create healthy food-handling habits in millions of households using food delivery services. 
  • To elicit active involvement of health educators (BAC Fighters) and the nation’s food retailers and food industry partners in delivering campaign messages to American homes.
  • To develop measurement criteria for “activation” (dissemination) tactics


To learn more about the survey conducted in the summer of 2020 check out this upcoming presentation at the 2021 Consumer Food Safety Education Virtual Conference.

UPCOMING PRESENTATION

Food Safety Education for Active Food Delivery Users
Wednesday, March 10
3:40 to 4 p.m. EST

During the conference, Chinwendu Ozoh and Angela Shaw of Iowa State University will present results of a study examining the food handling practices of individuals and families using food delivery services. Conducted during the pandemic, study findings will enable educators to improve food safety intervention and messaging. The delivery services considered in the study are meal kits, grocery delivery/curbside pick-up, and prepared food delivery. The Partnership for Food Safety Education study was conducted by Iowa State University  and its subcontractor, Qualtrics XM in July to September 2020.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

The 2021 Consumer Food Safety Education Virtual Conference, March 9-12, 2021, sponsored by the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education, is the only conference in the U.S. dedicated to consumer food safety education. For more conference information and to register, please visit fightbac.org/virtual.

Watching & Learning: Multi-Year Behavior Study

By Aaron Lavallee, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Public Affairs and Consumer Education, USDA FSIS, and Laura Scott, Public Affairs Specialist, USDA FSIS

A research team supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is conducting five separate iterations of a meal preparation study to address a specific consumer behavior and to determine the effectiveness of a behavior change intervention.

These meal preparation experiments are part of a five-year study that also includes focus groups (two iterations) and web surveys (two iterations).

A lack of basic food safety practices and proper handwashing during meal preparation was revealed in the first three years of the five-year observational study conducted by FSIS.

The study looked at improving food safety messages by evaluating food handling in a test kitchen. From the findings, FSIS has targeted its messaging to address the proper steps of handwashing, cleaning, and sanitizing to reduce the risks of cross-contamination. 

Study goals include learning:

  • How are people getting food safety information?
  • Are we delivering the right messages?
  • What are people doing during meal preparation?


As part of both the year-one and year-three studies, participants sat in a waiting room and viewed a newsfeed on a monitor. The test group newsfeed included a food safety story. The year-two study test group received food safety messages in their scheduling emails.

Each study addressed specific consumer behavior and assessed the effectiveness of a related behavior change intervention. Thus far, studies have looked at the adequacy of cleaning and sanitizing activities, poultry washing, and handwashing attempts.

  • Year one: Using a thermometer on turkey burgers and hand washing.
    • FSIS observed the food handling behaviors of consumers preparing turkey burgers and a side salad.
    • Unsafe food handling behaviors led to germs from raw poultry spreading in the kitchen. 
  • Year two: Washing poultry.
    • FSIS observed the kitchen behaviors of consumers who self-reported washing poultry while they prepared chicken thighs and a side salad. 
    • Participants did not attempt to clean the sink immediately after washing or rinsing poultry.
  • Year three: Using a thermometer on not ready-to-eat (NRTE) frozen poultry.
    • USDA observed the kitchen behaviors of participants preparing NRTE frozen stuffed chicken breasts and frozen corn products.
    • Participants did not properly wash their hands before handling NRTE frozen chicken.


During all three years, the observation study showed that participants did not practice proper handwashing steps.  Before and during meal preparation, the participants either did not wash their hands or did not wash them sufficiently ― about 95 to 99% of the time. 

Handwashing was insufficient because participants: 

  • Did not use soap (2% control & treatment)
  • Did not scrub hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds (93% control to 90% treatment). 
  • Did not wet hands with water before applying soap (63% control & treatment)
  • Did not dry hands with a clean or one-use towel. (2% control to 5% treatment)


Using the observational research findings, FSIS created safe food handling messaging on proper handwashing, cleaning and sanitizing, and cross-contamination such as:  

  • Shifting the messaging from “do not wash poultry” to explaining that washing poultry can spread germs around the kitchen and cross-contaminate other foods.
  • A 2019 social media campaign about poultry washing that ran from August to December. 
  • FSIS produced and shared eight videos highlighting study results in 17 social media posts. 
  • FSIS worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create educational infographics and videos to encourage successful handwashing.


The FSIS contracted with RTI International (RTI) and its subcontractor, North Carolina State University (NCSU), to conduct this survey. In addition to the observational studies, focus groups and web-based surveys are part of the five-year study.

UPCOMING PRESENTATION

Thursday, March 11
2:10 to 2:30 p.m. EST

During the conference, FSIS will present a deeper dive into the results of the first three years of the observational research. The results thus far are helping to develop more effective messaging. For example, preventing cross-contamination by properly cleaning and sanitizing kitchen surfaces is now being promoted instead of “do not wash your poultry.” The FSIS contracted with RTI International (RTI) and its subcontractor, North Carolina State University (NCSU) to conduct this study. 

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

The 2021 Consumer Food Safety Education Virtual Conference, March 9-12, 2021, sponsored by the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education, is the only conference in the U.S. dedicated to consumer food safety education. For more conference information and to register, please visit fightbac.org/virtual.

COVID-19 Food Safety on Social Media

By Karen Blakeslee, Kansas State University Research and Extension; Londa Nwadike, Kansas State University/University of Missouri; and Levy Randolph, Department of Communications and Agricultural Education, Kansas State University College of Agriculture

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Extension Food Safety units at Kansas State University (KSU) and the University of Missouri (MU Extension) used a variety of community outreach channels to distribute food safety information. Our primary channels included news stories, radio spots, public workshops and events, print brochures, and social media.

Social media, such as Facebook, was used to a lesser extent with content focusing on basics such as canning green beans in July, how to have a safe summer picnic, and preparing game meats in the fall.

Concerned about food safety during the pandemic, many families relied on social media for information. We saw social media quickly emerge as the public’s main source of information and, unfortunately, misinformation. Some erroneous social media posts suggested that washing produce in bleach was necessary to kill the virus, for example.

As its primary public outreach during the pandemic, KSU and MU Extension increased their distribution of accurate, evidenced-based information on social media channels, primarily Facebook. Most of the posts included information from and/or linked to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as KSU and MU Extension. 

Through state and local cooperative extension groups and community groups sharing KSU and MU Extension posts, our reach exponentially expanded. One post on proper disinfection reached more than 9,600 users across various Facebook pages! 

To gauge the effectiveness of our social media efforts, we surveyed 120 of our users to learn if they: 

  • Gained any new knowledge from the posts
  • Used the food safety practices suggested in our six highest performing posts


We learned that social media was an effective way to convey information that would improve consumer food safety practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the number of people reached for each post did not appear to correlate with the percentage of respondents saying they would use that safe food handling practice.

Here are the survey results of respondents who said they would definitely or probably use the food safety behaviors suggested in social media posts: 

  • Handwashing (100%)
  • Washing produce only with water (92%)
  • Essential grocery shopping tips (80%) 
  • Using general food safety practices (65%)
  • Washing hands before eating takeout food (43%)
  • Disinfecting surfaces (41%)


Based on the survey data and experiences with social media postings, we gained valuable tips on how to increase reach and improve families’ safe food handling and hand hygiene behaviors. In addition to providing information on reach and other metrics from two university extension services, we gained data on effective ways to improve the delivery of consumer food safety information. 

UPCOMING PRESENTATION

Friday, March 12
1:20 p.m. to 1:40 p.m.

During the conference, we will present the results of our IRB-approved survey conducted with Kansas State University and University of Missouri Extension social media users. Participants will 1) gain ideas for potential social media posts and images 2) learn how they can conduct a simple survey of their social media users to determine their knowledge gain and food safety behavior changes. In addition to  reach and other metrics from two university extension services, we will include information on effective ways to improve the delivery of consumer food safety information.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

The 2021 Consumer Food Safety Education Virtual Conference, March 9-12, 2021, sponsored by the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education, is the only conference in the U.S. dedicated to consumer food safety education. For more conference information and to register, please visit fightbac.org/virtual.

It’s a Home Baking Bonanza!

Not unlike a delicious yeast bread, consumer spending on home baking rises during the holiday season. Cookies, cakes, pies and breads are delicious traditional goodies for winter holiday celebrations. 

According to NCSolutions, household spending on sweet and dessert items have been high throughout the COVID-19 pandemic — especially products used for baking. Household spending on confections, baked goods and baking supplies was up 9% in the period February 24 through September 30 when compared to the same period in 2019.*

Many Americans greatly enjoy baking at home. But not everyone is aware that mishandling raw batter or raw dough can be risky to their families’ health — especially for children! These important tips will help families keep holiday baking traditions safe.

Handle baking ingredients with care

Our favorite holiday cookies and other treats are made from scratch using raw ingredients. Two of these raw ingredients — raw flour and raw eggs — can contain harmful bacteria that can cause foodborne illness. Exposure to heat — baking — is a necessary step to make sure that foods made with raw flour and raw eggs are safe.

Eating raw dough or batter can be risky — especially for young children who have underdeveloped immune systems, putting them at risk for serious illness from bacteria like Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter and others. 

Always wash hands with soap and water after handling raw ingredients, and uncooked dough and batter.

To keep the holidays bright and happy, pay attention to these simple home handling steps for baking ingredients:

  • Raw eggs: To prevent illness from bacteria, keep eggs refrigerated at 40 °F or below until ready to use. Bake desserts containing eggs to a safe internal temperature of 160 °F as measured with a food thermometer. Wash hands with soap and water after handling raw eggs.
  • Raw flour: Follow package directions on baking mixes and other flour-containing products for correct cooking temperatures and times. Keep all raw foods, like eggs and flour and eggs, separate from ready-to eat foods. Remember, flour is a powder and spreads easily. Wash hands with soap and water after handling raw flour.


Handling these raw ingredients with care will help everyone stay healthy while baking at home.

Prevent cross-contamination while baking

Cross-contamination is how bacteria can be spread from hands and surfaces to your food.

Cut down on cross-contamination of harmful germs with these baking basics:

  • When baking at home, wash utensils, appliances and work surfaces with hot water and soap before and after they come in contact with raw dough, raw flour, and eggs or egg-containing foods.
  • Wash your hands with soap and water thoroughly after contact with raw dough and raw ingredients, like flour and eggs.
  • Your digital device is dirty. Try to keep hands off of your smartphone and tablet while you are cooking or baking. If you touch your device, wash your hands with soap and water.


Remember: Washing hands with soap and water for 20 seconds before and after handling raw ingredients is the best way to reduce the spread of germs that can make you sick.

A healthy holiday home

With the current health threat of COVID-19, you want to make sure that no one in your household gets food poisoning this holiday season. Now is the time to model food safety behavior for your children and grandchildren. Let them know that baked cookies or desserts are well worth the wait!

Do you have a favorite family cookie recipe? It’s easy to turn that family favorite into a safe family recipe — and your kids can help! The Safe Recipe Activity teaches kids how to turn a basic recipe into a safe recipe. It’s a fun, educational activity that your entire family will enjoy.

These great cookie and dessert recipes already build food safety and hand hygiene prompts into the act of baking. Give these delicious sweets a try at home!

This season will be so much sweeter if we all stay healthy. From the Partnership for Food Safety Education, we wish you a happy and safe baking season!

Shawnte Loeri is the Communications Associate with the Partnership for Food Safety Education. She enjoys baking vegan desserts with her family and friends. Shawnte can be reached at sloeri@fightbac.org.



*NCSolutions CPG Insights Tracker Shows Sustained Consumer Interest in Confections, Baked Goods and Baking Supplies, Led by 38% Higher Sales of Baking Mixes