Partnership for Food Safety Education

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Partnership for Food Safety Education Grows with New Board Members, Partners

The Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) announces several appointments to its Board of Directors. PFSE is a non-profit, public health organization that develops and promotes education programs to reduce foodborne illness risk for consumers.

The Partnership appointed four new board members:

  • Jane DeMarchi, president of the North American Millers’ Association
  • Stefanie Evans, Ph.D., vice president of quality and food safety sourcing and design at Danone North America
  • H. Lester Schonberger, Ph.D., associate extension specialist with Virginia Tech/Virginia Cooperative Extension
  • Sharon Mayl, partner at DLA Piper, appointed as board advisor


“We’re so happy to welcome our new board members,” said Harold Chase, PFSE board chair and director of government affairs with NSF. “Our talented Board of Directors is dedicated to stewarding PFSE to be effective at helping people reduce their risk of foodborne illness at home.”

Rotating off the board are Michael Roberson, director of corporate quality assurance with Publix Super Markets and past board chair, as well as Shauna C. Henley, Ph.D., family and consumer sciences educator at University of Maryland Extension. The Partnership is grateful for their dedication to food safety education and servant leadership.

PFSE also welcomes six new contributing partners: Albertsons, Amazon, Diversey, Home Chef, JBS and SmartLabel by Consumer Brands Association. Contributing partners help to keep food safety education resources free to access and provide thought leadership to program development and strategy.

“The Partnership’s historical leadership in public-private collaboration is unique and important to making an impact on foodborne illnesses,” said Britanny Saunier, PFSE executive director. “We’re grateful to have the thought leadership of our Board of Directors, contributing partners, federal liaisons and food safety educators to advance awareness of safe food handling practices for people preparing meals at home.”

View the full list of PFSE Board of Directors and the partner organizations who support this work.

About the Partnership for Food Safety Education
The Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) is a non-profit, public health organization with a mission to develop and promote effective education programs to reduce foodborne illness risk for consumers. This important work is done through a historically significant cross-sector collaboration with the federal government, food industry, consumer groups, and scientific associations. PFSE supports more than 13,000 health and food safety educators with free, science-based safe food handling messages who reach 8.5 million U.S. households each year. Food safety professionals, health educators, and consumers can download free food safety education information from the Partnership’s website at fightbac.org.

Food Safety During Severe Weather

During a power outage, the clock starts ticking on the safety of your perishable foods. If you are aware of an approaching storm, tornado, hurricane or high electricity use, you can be prepared.

Before the Storm

  • If you can prepare in advance, make sure you are using appliance thermometers in your fridge and freezer.
  • Have a cooler or two at the ready, filled with ice or several frozen gel packs.
  • Research where dry ice or block ice are available near you.


During the Storm

  • Once the power goes out, be mindful of time and temperature.
  • Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed.
  • Your refrigerator will hold a safe temperature for about four hours.
  • Your freezer, if packed full, will hold food at a safe temperature for about 48 hours with no power — at half full, the time decreases to 24 hours.
  • Food is safe to refreeze if it still has ice crystals or if the freezer did not rise above 40 °F.


After the Storm

  • When the power is back on, check the temperature inside your freezer and refrigerator by looking at the thermometer.
  • If the temperature is still 0 ⁰F or below for freezer and 40 ⁰F or below for refrigerator, your food should be fine.
  • NEVER taste food to determine its safety.
  • The following foods are safe if held above 40 ⁰F for more than 2 hours: hard cheeses, grated Parmesan cheese, butter or margarine, opened fruit juices, jelly, relish, taco sauce, mustard, ketchup, olives, pickles, and Worcestershire, soy, barbecue and Hoisin sauces, peanut better, opened vinegar-based dressing, bread products, breakfast breads, fruit pies, fresh mushrooms, herbs, spices, uncut raw vegetables and fruit.
  • What you should throw out: meat, poultry or seafood products; soft cheeses and shredded cheeses; milk, cream, yogurt, and other dairy products; opened baby formula; eggs and egg products; dough, cooked pasta; cooked or cut produce.


After a Flood

  • Do not eat any food that may have touched flood water.
  • Discard food that is not in waterproof containers; screw-caps, snap lids, pull tops, and crimped tops are not waterproof.
  • Discard cardboard juice/milk/baby formula boxes and home-canned foods.
  • Discard any damaged cans that have swelling, leakage, punctures, holes, fractures, extensive deep rusting, or crushing/denting severe enough to prevent normal stacking or opening.
  • Mix a sanitizing solution of 1 Tablespoon of unscented bleach with one gallon of water to disinfect pots, pans, dishes, utensils, and undamaged all-metal cans after removing the label. Relabel with a permanent marker.


Preparing for disasters in advance is helpful to provide peace of mind. Knowing how to manage our food supply before, during and after a disaster will be essential to living.

For more information contact your local extension office or check out PFSE resources.

 ** Reprinted from Idaho State Journal. **

Lisa’s Table Is All About Safe Dinners

Meet Lisa

Lisa Treiber is a dedicated BAC Fighter who is passionate about keeping her community safe. She is an Extension Agent at Michigan State University, and she regularly uses Fight BAC! resources in her curriculum.

Lisa values raising awareness around safe food handling practices. Throughout the semester she teaches courses that remind students how to stay healthy. She also shares The Story of Your Dinner resources — particularly around the holiday season. She has done this for many years and has noticed that her community responds positively to it.

Lisa’s Table Spreads Awareness for the Holidays

This past holiday season, Lisa dedicated a table to food safety in the atrium of the Midland County Building Department. She enlarged food safety tips from The Story of Your Dinner and made them into laminated tiles. The tiles were arranged to be easily read by anyone who passes through the building. Lisa is thankful for the clear messages on each tile like “Suds up for 20 seconds” and “Keep your refrigerator at 40 °F or below.”

Lisa went a step further and printed off recipes with food safety steps and left them on the table. She worked hard to emphasize the importance of food safety during the holiday season, and it was well received by her peers and community. She was pleasantly surprised to see over 50 recipes had been taken from the table by the diverse population that walks through the building.

Years of Community Engagement at the Table

This isn’t the first year Lisa has created a table display. A couple years ago, she increased community engagement by holding a drawing for those who stopped at the table. Over 75 people entered, and the winner received a fridge thermometer to ensure their fridge was at a food-safe temperature. The county health department sanitarian workers who approved the display said that it was “wonderful.”

Lisa feels that with the number of those who have responded each year, she is getting her message across and doing her part in spreading awareness to her community. She appreciates that the resources from the Partnership for Food Safety Education are diverse and can be easily tweaked to be used throughout the entire year.

Lisa Treiber is an Extension Agent at Michigan State University. She can be reached at treiber@msu.edu.

You can make sure families have the safe food handling information that they need to reduce their risk of food poisoning with a personal contribution today. Click here to make a gift.

Cut Food Waste and Maintain Food Safety at Home

(This blog post was developed from a Knowledge Exchange event sponsored by the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education on Jan. 16, 2018. Access a recording of the 30-minute event.)

Howard Seltzer, FDA National Food Safety Education Advisor

Reducing the risk of foodborne illness for consumers is the primary focus of the Partnership for Food Safety Education. One in six Americans get a foodborne illness each year. In our work as food safety educators we can support consumers with actions they can take to reduce cross-contamination and to handle food in a way that helps them manage risk of germs like salmonella, campylobacter, E-coli and listeria monocytogenes.

Food waste is food that is discarded or lost uneaten. Sometimes in food safety education we encourage food to be tossed uneaten if it can pose a health risk to a consumer. Food waste is a huge challenge to our natural resources, our environment, and our pocketbooks.

Howard Seltzer, a National Food Safety Education Advisor at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has been a terrific supporter of the Partnership and a true colleague in food safety education. Howard recently shared information with the BAC Fighter community on food waste and food safety.

Q: What is the connection between food waste and food safety?

Seltzer: Food waste by consumers can result from fears about food safety. Some of these fears relate to misunderstandings about what food product dating actually means. Also, consumers can be uncertain about how to store perishable foods.

Q: What are the basics of understanding food product dating?

Seltzer: Except for infant formula, dates on food products are not required by any Federal law or regulation, although some states do have requirements for them. Most of the food dates consumers see are on perishable foods. These are foods likely to quickly spoil, decay or become unsafe to eat if not kept refrigerated at 40° F or below or frozen at 0° F or below. Perishables include meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, eggs, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Producers of perishable food use dates to help ensure that consumers buy or use them while the products are at what the producers consider their best quality.

  • Sell by date indicates that a product should not be sold after that date if the buyer is to have it at its best quality.
  • Use by date or Best by date is the maker’s estimate of how long a product will keep at its best quality.

These are quality dates only, not safety dates. If stored properly, a food product should be safe, wholesome and of good quality after its Use by or Best by date.

Q: What are tools that BAC Fighters can use in educating consumers about storing and handing perishable foods?

Seltzer: The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cornell University and the Food Marketing Institute cooperatively developed an app called “The FoodKeeper”. This app tells you how best to store perishables and how long they will keep safely. “The FoodKeeper” app is a complete guide to how long virtually every food available in the United States will keep its quality and flavor in the pantry, in the refrigerator, and in the freezer. You can download the FoodKeeper as a mobile app on your Android or Apple devices. You also can access it at FoodSafety.gov.

Q: What are some practical grocery shopping and eating tips that can help consumers manage their food at home?

Seltzer: First of all, don’t buy more perishable food than you can reasonably consume before it reaches its maximum storage time. For example, prepackaged luncheon meats will keep two weeks when stored in the refrigerator or three to five days if refrigerated after opening. Plan your meals and use shopping lists. Think about what you are buying and when it will be eaten or used. Before you shop, check your fridge and pantry to avoid buying an item that you already have.

Also, avoid impulse and bulk purchases, especially fresh produce and dairy that have limited shelf life. Promotions encouraging purchase of unusual or bulk products often result in consumers buying foods outside their typical needs or family preferences. These foods may end up in the trash.
Lastly, when eating out, become a more mindful eater. If you’re not terribly hungry, request smaller portions. Bring your leftovers home and refrigerate or freeze them within two hours.

Q: Potential for waste of these foods is high for perishable foods. What are the most important tips around storing perishables?

Seltzer: Here are a few important tips on storing of perishable foods so that you can avoid food waste. Make sure the temperature of your refrigerator is at or below 40° F. This will ensure perishables are stored safely. Next, avoid “over packing” your fridge. Cold air must circulate around refrigerated foods to keep them properly chilled. Wipe up spills in your refrigerator immediately. This action will reduce the risk of cross contamination where bacteria from one food get spread to other foods in your refrigerator. Finally, check your fridge often to keep track of what you have and what needs to be reheated and eaten or put in the freezer for later use. Leftovers should be used within 3-4 days. You can avoid wasting food by planning to eat these leftovers within the 3-4 days.

Q: What’s the difference between spoilage bacteria and the bacteria that can cause a foodborne illness?

Seltzer: Most people would not choose to eat spoiled food. However, if they did, they probably would not get sick. Spoilage bacteria can cause fruits and vegetables to get mushy or slimy, or meat to develop a bad odor, but they do not generally make you sick. Pathogenic bacteria cause illness. They grow rapidly in the Danger Zone-the temperatures between 40 °F (4.4 °C) and 140 °F (60 °C) and do not generally affect the taste, smell, or appearance of food. Food that is left too long at unsafe temperatures could be dangerous to eat, but smell and look just fine.

Check out these quality resources on reducing food waste while maintaining food safety at home:

Knowledge Exchange recording

FoodSafety.gov

FDA Article on Food Waste and Food Safety

Refrigerator & Freezer Storage Chart (PDF)

FDA Food Waste Fact Sheet (PDF)

“Home Canning and Botulism” Article

FoodKeeper app: Android Devices | Apple Devices

CATHY PROVIDES FOOD SAFETY TRAINING IN NEW JERSEY

Cathy John, a certified food safety professional with Keeping Food Safe, Inc., is very active in her New Jersey community, offering food safety training and consulting services. Cathy hosted a presentation at the James F. McGuire Memorial Senior Citizen Center in Northvale to promote National Food Safety Education Month.

She spoke to the seniors about the importance of proper safe food handling to keep them healthy. The seniors were actively engaged and asked questions about what steps they should take to prevent cross-contamination that can lead to foodborne illness. The presentation highlighted the importance of the four core principles – Clean, Separate, Cook, Chill.

Cathy has worked in the food service industry for over 15 years and recognizes the vital need for food safety training and education. She aims to empower food service employees to make the right choices that will protect the health and safety of consumers, while maintaining food safety standards within the business.

“No food service business is too small to have a food safety plan in place as it protects the business and consumer,” Cathy said.

Way to go, Cathy! Thank you for helping to keep our food safe!