| Partnership for Food Safety Education

Food Safety is a Shared Responsibility

March 26, 2015

Shelley Feist, Executive Director of the Partnership for Food Safety Education

Note: Cross-posted from the IFIC Foundation’s Nutrition Blog. Food safety is a shared responsibility across the food supply. This Food Safety Education Month, the IFIC Foundation is featuring guest blog posts from the various entities that work to keep our food supply safe—Consumers, Farmers/Producers,Retailers/Food Service and the Government.

An estimated 190 million Americans own a car and I’m one of them. A car is a great thing – but it can also be a dangerous thing if it is handled incorrectly.

I don’t keep my car running on my own. When I bought it more than ten years ago I tried to make an informed choice – to make sure the car offered what I was looking for, and that the manufacturer was delivering a good quality product. I couldn’t be 100% sure I was getting this. I could only hope and trust that was the case.

I rely on the petroleum industry to make sure I can get gas for my car – quality fuel that will run my car and not damage it. I also rely on one or more trained people to help keep my car running safely and well. They fix things that if not maintained might just get worse and lead to a total breakdown of the car.

Kansas State University’s Fight BAC Class

March 26, 2015

Stephanie Castillo Teaches First and Second Grade Students the Core 4

Stephanie Castillo with Kansas State University taught food safety to first and second grade after school students this autumn. Her “Fight BAC Class” teaches food safety basics, such as hand-washing practices, to after school program kids. First, she begins her lesson with an illustration of the fast growth rate of illness-causing bacteria with a marble multiplication experiment . After a short break for “germ tag” and a healthy snack, Stephanie and the students talked about the importance of hand washing; hands should be washed with warm water and soap for twenty seconds every time before you eat and every time after you use the bathroom. The kids concluded that it is better to wash with warm water and soap but to use hand sanitizer when water and soap is not available. They were sent home with a food safety quiz to do alongside their parents.

Fairchild Airmen Fight BAC! ®

March 26, 2015

Lead by BAC! Fighter Darla Klausner, the airmen of Fairchild Air Force Base (AFB) answered the call – the call to Fight BAC!® In April, through collaboration with the 92nd Public Health Flight and the Defense Commissary Agency, Darla executed a Fight BAC!® Food Safety Awareness Campaign at the Fairchild AFB Commissary. Their mission: to provide Fairchild residents with information on how to properly clean, separate, cook, and chill food to prevent foodborne illness.

Over a busy couple of days, Darla and her team of airmen from the 92nd Public Health Flight distributed Fight BAC!® fliers, magnets, and stickers to commissary patrons. By the campaign’s end, they had reached over 300 people, stressing the importance of food safe practices. Mission accomplished!

Interacting face to face with consumers is a powerful way to drive food safety messages home – we salute Darla and the airmen at Fairchild for their work in spreading food safe messages! Together, we can achieve a food safe America.

The Partnership for Food Safety Education in HGTV Magazine

February 26, 2015

The Partnership for Food Safety Education was featured in the October/November edition of HGTV Magazine. It may feel wasteful to toss what seems (and smells) like good turkey and stuffing, but Thanksgiving leftovers really should not be kept for a week. Executive Director Shelley Feist explained, “You can’t see, smell, or taste E. coli or salmonella and if your food is harboring either bacteria, it could make you sick.”

Temperature and time cause bacteria to grow, which is why it is so important your refrigerator be cold enough and you not keep leftovers too long.   Even when refrigerated properly (at 40 °F), leftovers should be eaten, frozen or discarded within 3 to 4 days.  When heating and storing leftovers keep the following in mind:

• Refrigerate cooked leftovers promptly – within 2 hours. Use an appliance thermometer in your refrigerator to ensure your refrigerator is at 40 °F or below.
• Divide leftovers into smaller portions and store in shallow containers in the refrigerator.
• Reheat cooked leftovers to 165 °F as measured with a food thermometer. Sauces, soups and gravies should be reheated by bringing them to a boil.
• When microwaving leftovers, make sure there are no cold spots in food (where bacteria can survive). Cover food, stir and rotate for even cooking.

Voices of BAC! Fighters

February 26, 2015

Allow us to introduce you to three BAC! Fighters who work hard to teach kids about food safety. We have been hearing from educators about their interest in new and refreshed Fight BAC!® educational material for kids.

Melissa is an enthusiastic middle school teacher from New Mexico that uses Fight BAC!® to make sure her sixth grade students are safe from foodborne illness. Her sixth grade students are like sponges, she says, and would love new materials for her students.

Devoted community nutrition educator, Denise, from Minnesota, reaches over 500 kids in 3rd to 5th grade with Fight BAC!® materials and is always interested in new, evidence-based material for her students.

Dana, a passionate educator from Texas, uses Fight BAC!® materials in middle and high school because it catches her students’ attention and would like updated materials to keep their interest.

Fight BAC!® materials for students have been in the field since 1998.

In response to demonstrated need by educators for new materials for kids, the Partnership is seeking partners for support of a new campaign in 2013- the BAC! Fighters National Youth Campaign.

Please consider making a year-end charitable contribution that supports educators like Melissa, Denise, and Dana in their efforts to end foodborne illness in America.