United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Dianne Durant, editor

Liz Lapping, assistant editor

Phone: 202-690-0351

FAX: 202-720-9063

Volume 3, No. 2 1998

C ommunities and Stores Are Fighting BAC!TM

He’s a slimy, big-toothed

character, and he’s starting to

make his appearance around

town, drool and all. He’s BAC!

And the Fight BAC!TM campaign

is hitting the streets with the

Four Simple Steps to Food

Safety.

The Partnership for Food

Safety Education distributed

more than 30,000 Community

Action Kits and 1,500 Supermarket Kits in March. In early

May a nationwide teleconference sponsored by the U.S.

Department of Agriculture

(USDA) and the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) reached out to extension

agents and other educators with the latest information on the campaign.

According to Dagmar Farr of the Food Marketing

Institute, word is already coming in about innovative

ways their member supermarkets are using the

materials.

• Fight BAC!TM magnets were produced and given

out to kids on store tours.

• Grocery store bags have included the four food

safety steps--and how the store acts on them.

• BAC! is turning up everywhere in stores--on

flyers, milk cartons, and decorating grocery store

aisles.

According to Farr the Fight BAC!TM campaign is

“really a remarkable example of different groups

coming together and finding common ground. For

the first time since we’ve been educating consumers,

we have a consensus on

messages. As a result, we’re

building on each other’s

efforts instead of going it

alone,” she said.

The campaign, which

was launched last fall, is

working this year to build

awareness through the

Action Kits, the website

and an animated public

service announcement

which has been distributed

nationally.

“As we move into the

second year of the campaign,” said Farr, “we’ll be

analyzing the effectiveness of this first year and

looking for ways to improve the educational

portion of the campaign. More than likely, we’ll

do a program for children in schools.”

Both Action Kits include reproducible fact sheets,

suggestions for community or store activities, sample

newsletter articles and fact sheets and scripts for radio

public service announcements. The Action Kits can be

downloaded from the website (http://

www.fightbac.org).

Industry groups have provided more than

$500,000 in funding to date while other cooperators, such as federal agencies, are providing

printing and distribution support.

Non-profit health, education and civic groups

can use the materials free of charge. Organizations interested in using the Fight BAC!TM cartoon

character in promotion or sales of products must

pay a fee.

TM

•

the rip-off

section

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Information:

Did you know?

The Food Safety

Educator is a free

quarterly

publication.

If you are

interested

in subscribing,

fax your name and

address to:

202/720-9063,

or write:

Public Outreach

Room 1180 South

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Washington, D.C.

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2 The Food Safety Educator

•

Food safety experts recognize that

thorough cooking is one of the critical

control points in preventing foodborne

illness. The most accurate measure of

thorough cooking is a cooking thermometer. The question is: “How do you

persuade consumers to use a cooking

thermometer whenever they cook?”

The Food Safety and Inspection

Service (FSIS) sought answers to that

question through the use of consumer

focus groups.

A report on the results of the focus

group sessions indicates behavior

change is possible and that some groups

of people are more receptive than others

to the idea of using a meat thermometer.

FSIS conducted the focus group

sessions in November 1997. A total of six

focus group sessions were held; three in

Baltimore, Md., and three in Richmond,

Va. The sessions explored barriers to

thermometer use, managing the cooking

process, choosing a thermometer, and

modifying behavior. The focus groups

were comprised of parents of young

children, senior citizens, and

 20- to 30- year-olds with no children.

While participants in both the young

adult and senior citizen groups stated

they would be very unlikely to change

any behaviors, parents of young children

indicated they would change to “ensure

the safety of their children.”

In addition, the report notes that

“experience has shown that individuals

may be more likely to change than they

explicitly state.”

The report suggests there are a

number of ways to accomplish this goal:

• Stress improved taste, not safety,

• Encourage thermometer use with

ordinary meals, not holidays, and

• Target information to the parents of

young children.

Participants in all groups agreed that

they felt safe about the food they served

in their own kitchens without using a

meat thermometer. Most said they

judged doneness based on previous

experience cooking the same food, or by

how the food looked after it was cooked.

At the same time, many participants

stated they would be more likely to use a

thermometer if they were convinced it

would enhance the flavor and quality of

the meal they served.

The report also noted that people

were most likely to use thermometers

preparing holiday meals. In addition,

people felt that large cuts of meats such

as roasts or turkeys would benefit most

from using a meat thermometer.

But many people were uncertain how

to use a thermometer in smaller cuts of

meat such as boneless chicken breasts or

hamburgers typically served with

ordinary meals.

Susan Conley, director of the FSIS

food safety education and communications staff, found the report encouraging.

 “People can be convinced to use a

meat thermometer,” she said. “The focus

groups told us that people are willing to

use thermometers in large cuts of meat

as a ‘quality’ issue. They feel they will

have a better tasting product.

 “We need to show consumers that

you can also improve the quality--and

safety--of small pieces of meat. Your pork

chop or your hamburger doesn’t have to

taste like a hockey puck in order to be

safe. Using a meat thermometer with

everyday meals can help you do that.”

The groups also felt it would be

helpful to have information that stresses

that using meat thermometers is easy. In

addition, they suggested that recipes

include the internal temperature for the

cooked food, rather than the current

practice of recommending cooking time

and temperature.

In general, consumer knowledge of

thermometer types, features and options

was limited. Participants in all groups

overwhelmingly favored the standard

meat thermometer with the large dial

and temperature information printed on

the thermometer face.

H ot Stuff: Cooking Thermometers!

•

Thermometers and turkeys were going

fast last Thanksgiving in Boulder, Co. As

part of a holiday food safety promotion,

the Safeway grocery store chain teamed

up with the local health department to

pass out free thermometers along with

fliers on safe food handling.

The campaign gave away close to 630

thermometers--donated by Safeway and

the health department-- and provided

safe food handling information to more

than 1,500 consumers.

The program was developed by

Boulder County Environmental Health

Coordinator Sharon Krull. Realizing that

consumers always ask questions about

how to prepare turkeys, Krull decided to

take advantage of their interest to

educate them about safe food handling

and thermometer use.

Working with Safeway, she arranged a

portable educational booth, which

moved to six different stores over a 6-day

period.

But Krull’s not finished. She’s

planning a follow-up effort with Safeway

before the 4th of July. They’ll be showing

consumers how to use meat thermometers when grilling hamburgers.

For more information, call

303/441-1197.

T o The T:

Thermometers

and Turkeys
The Hotline, part of USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, provides accurate,

up-to-date information to callers on safe food handling and the prevention of foodborne

illness. Home economists, registered dietitians and food technologists staff this public

health service.

Volume 3, No. 2 1998 3

O ne of the Four:

This Key Message is: SEPARATE

Supporting the Fight BAC!TM campaign, the USDA’s Meat

and Poultry Hotline is using the Four Simple Steps to

Food Safety as the topics for their quarterly mailings to

the media.

This summer’s mailing stresses SEPARATE: Don’t

Cross-Contaminate.

The media package includes an activity sheet for

kids, a general feature article, and an info-graphic.

Key tips for this Food Safety Step include:

• Separate raw meat, poultry and seafood from other

foods in your grocery shopping cart and in your

refrigerator.

• Use a different cutting board for raw meat

products.

• Always wash hands, cutting boards, dishes and utensils

with hot soapy water after they come in contact with

raw meat, poultry and seafood.

• Never place cooked food on a plate which

previously held raw meat, poultry and seafood.

For copies of these materials visit our website at

http://www.usda.gov/fsis.

Food Safety Month is Coming!

Summer is just starting and

September’s Food Safety Month

campaign seems a world away. But

not for the planners of things. They

know it’s never too soon to plan.

This year the federal government

will be joining the National Restaurant Association (NRA) in bringing

attention to food safety issues

through Food Safety Month.

Supporting the Fight BAC!TM campaign, the message for this year’s Food

Safety Month will be CLEAN, one of the

Four Simple Steps to Food Safety.

The NRA is preparing a packet of

materials to help educate restaurants

about the importance of CLEAN. Federal

agencies will focus on explaining the

CLEAN message to consumers, consumer

educators and school children.

Information materials are being

mailed out to NRA members and

distributed at their annual convention

in May. For information on the NRA

materials call 800/765-2122.

 For consumer information for

Food Safety Month, check out the next

issue of this newsletter as well as the

new federal website for food safety

information (http://foodsafety.gov). It

will be updated later this summer

with more news about the consumer

education campaign.
4 The Food Safety Educator

P erception or Reality: Is Our Food Supply Less Safe?

A variety of food safety experts addressed this question as panelists at the

21st National Food Policy Conference

sponsored by Public Voice, March 23-24,

1998, in Washington, D.C.

The panel featured experts from

federal agencies, a consumer group, a

state health department and an industry

group.

While the panelists agreed the

question was difficult to answer because

of the lack of reliable scientific data,

each had an interesting perspective to

add:

Dr. Fred Angulo, Project Officer,

FoodNet, Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention:

“I can’t say for certain food is less safe”

Dr. Angulo said, “ I can say there are

more cases reported.”

Dr. Angulo noted that the characteristics of foodborne disease have changed:

there are new pathogens, new modes of

transmission, a global food supply,

changing consumer preferences and

food choices, and new issues related to

antibiotic resistance.

The question, Dr. Angulo said, is how

to respond to these changes. Learning

from experiences with typhoid, he noted

that improvements in sanitation and

hygiene helped reduce disease. Similarly,

he said, “we need to prevent pathogens

from getting into the food supply” and

new programs aimed at reducing animal

feces in the food supply are an important

part of the solution.

Thomas Billy, Administrator, Food

Safety and Inspection Service:

“Is our food supply less safe than a

generation ago? This is a very difficult

question to answer. In terms of chemical

residues, I can say without a doubt that

food is safer. We’ve made great progress

in terms of bringing chemical residue

levels down to record lows.

“In terms of pathogens, however, the

answer is a bit more complicated, largely

because of many of the changes that have

occurred since a generation ago,” Billy

said.

Societal changes have complicated

the situation, he explained. More meals

are eaten outside the home, grocery

stores are selling meals ready to eat,

global trade is growing and so is the

proportion of individuals who face

increased risks for foodborne illness.

The Hazard Analysis and Critical

Control Points (HACCP) system is a new

process designed to address these

changes. In addition, FSIS recently set

the first performance standards for

pathogen reduction and expects to set

more. Also, Billy said, “we have better

programs in place to investigate and

respond to outbreaks of foodborne

illness. We are more vigilant to emerging pathogens.”

 Overall, Billy said, “we have established the partnerships necessary to

implement a farm-to-table food safety

strategy.”

Limited data make it difficult to

judge if food is less safe, Billy pointed

out. “But I believe the food supply is

safer in terms of our basic knowledge

about food safety, our achievements in

implementing process control systems in

food production, and our ability to

detect problems and respond to outbreaks of foodborne illness.”

Joseph Levitt, Director, Center for Food

Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and

Drug Administration:

“The question is interesting and provocative,” said Levitt, “but I’m not sure it’s the

right question.” A better question, he

said, would be “Is our food as safe as we

can make it--and are we poised to act as

we need to?”

Referring to President Clinton’s Food

Safety Initiative, Levitt noted that this

effort is focusing on the entire food

chain.

 As part of the Initiative, FDA is

moving forward with HACCP for seafood

as well as inspections of seafood plants.

In addition, he noted, FDA is focusing

on good agricultural practices for fruits

and vegetables and will be looking for

public comment on issues dealing with

sanitation, water and the use of manure.

“We also have the public education

Fight BAC!TM campaign. We’re going to

be going to the schools with this

message. We’re going to make COOK,

CLEAN, CHILL, and SEPARATE staples of

American society,” he promised.

Key concepts, said Levitt, are

prevention, education and verification.

“But we also need early detection and

containment,” he added.

“It’s not going to come easily. A lot of

work and a lot of energy is going into

this.... Is the problem real? We think it is.

Are we doing something? Yes.

“Most of all, it is a rare moment in

time when the President of the United

States says ‘Go out there and improve the

safety of the food supply.’ That’s an

incredibly strong message. It’s like all

the planets are lining up... and we have to

take advantage of it.”

Dr. Craig Hedberg, Supervisor, Foodborne Disease Unit, Minnesota Department of Health:

Drawing on data from the FoodNet

surveillance system, Dr. Hedberg noted

there are an estimated 1.4 foodborne

illnesses per person every year. Compared with previous studies, which were

limited in scope, this could indicate a

40-percent increase in incidences.

In looking for causes, Dr. Hedberg

pointed to chicken as well as fruits and

vegetables. With the rise of chicken

consumption, Dr. Hedberg noted, “we’ve

seen a rise in Campylobacter, the most

common cause of diarrheal illness.”

And while it is “heart healthy” to eat

five servings of fruits and vegetables a

day, Dr. Hedberg said, “we’ve seen a

marked increase” in outbreaks associated with these foods in Minnesota.
Volume 3, No. 2 1998 5

ra Is Our Food Supply Less Safe?

continued

•

•

Carol Tucker Foreman, Coordinator,

Safe Food Coalition:

“Our food supply is not safe enough” said

Foreman. While the government was

slow to recognize the situation, she said,

“the good news is we’ve begun to address

the problem.”

Foreman pointed to “three vital

steps.”

First, she said, “we need more

research on preventing illness and

tracking and destroying known and

emerging pathogens.

“We don’t have the basic information

necessary. Risk assessment will help. And

then we need a whole range of new

technologies to prevent and control

pathogens,” she said. Some of the

technologies include “real-time tests for

pathogens, even those that could be used

by consumers at home,” she said, as well

as temperature abuse tabs on packages of

meat, poultry and eggs.

Second, Foreman said, “we need to

stay the course” on inspection changes

that focus on preventing problems rather

than finding them after the fact. The

changes underway, she said, alter the

basic concept of what it means to have a

safe food supply. “Hundreds of reporters

are champing at the bit to report it

doesn’t work.... But what I want to tell

them is, we’ve already crossed the road.

We can’t go back,” she said.

Finally, she said, we need to shore up

food safety at both ends of the production chain--farms and consumers. At the

farm level, she said, we need to stop

contamination at the earliest possible

point. Foreman also pointed out the need

to be able to track food back to farm

sources.

In terms of consumers, she added,

“let’s all understand here. No one is ever

going to take as much care of us as we

take care of ourselves. Self-defense is

essential.”

Foreman added that she was impressed with the new Fight BAC!TM

campaign sponsored by the Partnership

for Food Safety Education.

“It’s a well-researched effort, a catchy

cartoon character and four wellresearched messages. The next challenge

is to see the icon show up everywhere.

Now it is primarily distributed by

industry and government. That’s not

enough. We need to make sure the

character and four messages become as

ubiquitous as the Nike swosh and

McDonald’s arches....

“We are bombarded every day with

thousands of messages. This is a message

that people can use to save their lives,”

she said.

Dane Bernard, Vice President, Food

Safety, National Food Processors

Association:

Is food less safe? Bernard asked. How you

answer that question, he said, depends on

your own experiences. He answered by

providing the audience with a look over

his shoulder to life on his family’s farm

as a boy in southern Indiana.

Milk was drawn fresh from the cow

out in the barn--a working barn complete with dirt, cow manure and a lot of

other “four-legged things” that accompany animals and grain storage.

Meat was often provided through the

“butcher’s circle.” Farmers from the

surrounding community would pool

their resources and go from farm to farm

to slaughter cattle for their own use.

While many today would question

the safety of unpasteurized milk and

home-slaughtered cattle, Bernard and his

family followed many food safety basics,

like thorough cooking. The point, he

said, is that the data don’t allow us to

make valid comparisons. The important

thing to remember, he added, is that

“there will never be a system in place

that will obviate the need for consumers

to handle food safely.”

“Is the media our ally? You bet,” said

Susan Conley, director of the FSIS

food safety education and communications staff.

 As part of a workshop on the

media held during the National Food

Policy Conference, Conley assessed

the role of the media in the food

safety arena.

“Food safety is a complicated

story and media coverage has helped

to shape the public debate,” she said.

As an example, she pointed to a

story on Salmonella and chicken in

the late 1980’s aired by “60 Minutes.”

People point to the 1993 outbreak

of E. coli O157:H7 as the “moment of

change in the food safety

dialogue,”she said. “But I submit that

the change started earlier, with the

‘60 Minutes’ story. It was an amazing

turning point. Prior to that, the

primary public food safety concern

was chemical residues. This story

began to create awareness and turn

the debate to foodborne pathogens.

“It was a hard time, the agency

was under a lot of criticism. But in

the long run, this show and subsequent media stories on pathogens

helped create the environment we are

in today and the changes we are

making.

“The media has had a huge role, as

have consumer groups and activists.

But the conduit has been the media,”

she pointed out.

Because of the media’s impact on

consumers, Conley stressed that it is

critical for the media to include

advice about what consumers can do

to protect themselves when they

cover stories about food safety issues.

“A lot of reporters feel they have

already provided this information,

but they need to cover it again and

again to reinforce the basics,” she

said.

T he Media:

Willing Allies?
6 The Food Safety Educator

•

J ournal Assesses Foodborne Illness

Our world is different today. That’s the

message from Nobel laureate Dr. Joshua

Lederberg, keynote speaker at the 1997

National Conference on Emerging

Foodborne Pathogens.

According to Dr. Lederberg, we are

more vulnerable to infectious diseases.

While we have the advantage of new

technologies we are also more vulnerable due to a number of factors including crowding, social stratification and

even world travel. “Affluent and mobile

people are ready, willing, and able to

carry afflictions all over the world within

24 hours’ notice,” he said.

“This condensation, stratification and

mobility is unique, defining us as a very

different species from what we were 100

years ago,” he said.

As a result, Dr. Lederberg called for a

global public health approach to the

threats posed by microbial foodborne

illness.

Dr. Lederberg was one of many

national and international experts whose

presentations are included in a Special

Issue of the journal of Emerging

Infectious Disease (Vol. 3, No. 4 Oct.-

Dec. 1997). The issue summarizes the

conference and takes a comprehensive

look at foodborne pathogens.

The conference was held in Alexandria, Va., March 24-26, 1997. It was

attended by more than 400 scientists in

basic and applied research, epidemiology and public health.

One of the purposes of the conference was to target ways to identify and

respond to emerging and reemerging

foodborne disease threats.

As a result, this information-rich

Special Issue covers subjects of interest

to the scientific community as well as

public health educators.

Topics covered in the journal,

produced by the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (CDC), include:

• Emerging Foodborne Diseases: An

Evolving Public Health Challenge

• Emergence of New Pathogens as a

Function of Changes in Host

Susceptibility

• Chronic Sequelae of Foodborne

Disease

• The Impact of Consumer Demands

and Trends on Food Processing

• Impact of Changing Consumer

Life-styles on the Emergence/

Reemergence of Foodborne

Pathogens

• Communicating Foodborne Disease

Risks

• Foodborne Disease Control:

A Transnational Challenge

• Consumer Concerns: Motivating to

Action

Conference organizers hope that the

publication of conference presentations

and discussions in this journal will

“stimulate initiatives to improve the

safety of food and draw much needed

attention to foodborne microbial

hazards.”

 Emerging Infectious Diseases is

published four times a year by the

National Center for Infectious Diseases,

CDC. The journal is available at no

charge and is distributed both electronically and in hard copy.

Access the journal at http://

www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm or

write:

Journal/CDC/MS C12

1600 Clifton Rd.

Atlanta, GA 30333

Journal

Excerpt

A Look to the Past:

The following excerpt provides a look

back to the era before World War II--and

a generation that lived with different

food safety risks, practices and remedies.

E. M. Foster, Professor Emeritus

Food Research Institute

University of Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin

“When I was growing up on my parents’

farm in East Texas, we never thought

about food poisoning or unsafe food. The

only foods we bought were sugar, salt,

flour and oatmeal; everything else we

produced and preserved on the farm.

“My mother spent all summer

canning fruits and vegetables for winter.

We had no refrigeration; we cured our

own meat and drank raw milk. But I

never heard of botulism, staph poisoning, or salmonellosis or perfringens

poisoning until I studied bacteriology in

college.

“Only then did I wonder how we

survived with no refrigeration in a hot

climate. Finally, the answer came to me.

We just did not give the bacteria time

enough to develop so they could hurt us.

“Leftovers from breakfast--hot

biscuits, eggs, ham, bacon or sausage,

oatmeal, coffee or milk--went right out

to the chickens. Lunch leftovers--

biscuits, cornbread, vegetables, or fried

chicken--were saved for a cold supper 4

or 5 hours later. Any food left went to the

pigs. The bacteria had only a maximum

of 3 or 4 hours to grow, and that usually

is not enough. I survived and went on to

study food microbiology, which included

what was known then about food

• poisoning.”
Volume 3, No. 2 1998 7

The National Food Service Management

Institute (NFSMI) provides training for

food service people running USDA’s

child nutrition programs.

Some of their publications are also

available to others in food service. Two

of their great training tools now available:

Serving It Safe

This program is a terrific deal while

supplies last. For only $10 (plus shipping) you get a computer-based interactive training program developed for

school food service people--along with a

complete notebook of supporting

materials.

 An animated computer program

literally walks you through the process

of safely handling food in schools,

letting the user perform all the tasks

necessary to prepare the school meal and

check their food safety knowledge as

they do it.

The program has been distributed to

schools in the National School Lunch

Program. Now, about 1,000 extras are

available to others who might be

interested. The publication number is

FCS-295.

The Care Connection

Training Program

Developed for child care programs, these

training materials provide child care

workers with a broad range of information including food safety and sanitation,

nutrition and basic food preparation

techniques for young children.

There are 10 video lessons and

materials for 48 training sessions. One of

the videos and four of the lessons focus

specifically on food safety and sanitation

in child care.

The publication number is EX 26-97.

The cost is $45, plus shipping.

For more information on both

programs, call 1/800-321-3054.

news briefs

F ood Service

Institute Has

What You Need

•

•

A recent issue of the FDA Consumer

magazine provided some useful

information on food safety including:

• Choosing seafood

• Storing perishables

• Preparing and cooking

• Serving

• Key cutting board rules

• Who’s at risk.

detection of irradiated foods.

Olson notes that “new challenges

awaiting resolution include safely and

successfully implementing irradiation of

the meat and poultry processing

industries; maintaining the quality of

raw, irradiated meats; developing

packaging suitable for irradiation;

developing methods to detect irradiated

foods; and educating the public about

the wholesomeness of foods made safer

by irradiation.”

For more information, contact IFT at

312/782-8424 (www.ift.org).

http://www.foodsafety.gov

The new federal website for food safety

information. Check it out.

New Report

Addresses

Irradiation

AScientific Status Summary on

Irradiation of Food appeared in the

January issue of Food Technology, Vol.

52, No. 1, published by the Institute of

Food Technologists (IFT).

The Summary notes that “The Food

and Drug Administration’s (FDA)

approval of irradiation for red meats in

December 1997 ended a long chapter

in the tumultuous history of an

important food safety and preservation

technology. Federal acceptance

validates what food scientists have long

known: that appropriate absorbed

doses of radiation effectively kill

disease-causing bacteria and delay

food spoilage.”

The article was written by Dennis G.

Olson, director of the Utilization

Center for Agricultural Products at

Iowa State University. It focuses on the

effects of irradiation, the impact of

irradiation on “muscle foods,” and

The article appeared in the

November-December 1997 issue.

FDA Consumer comes out quarterly

and is free. For more information

check their web site

(http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/list.html).

Or call the FDA’s Food Information

and Seafood Hotline at

1/800-FDA-4010.

A nationwide consumer awareness

program on food irradiation was

launched in April by the Grocery

Manufacturers of America, Food Marketing Institute and the American Farm

Bureau Federation. The program is due

to run for a year. For more information,

call 202/452-8444.

Speaking of

Irradiation...

•

On the Home Front
8 The Food Safety Educator

■ Restaurant

Association Training

Hones in on HACCP

The Educational Foundation of the

National Restaurant Association (NRA)

has announced a new food safety training

program based on the Hazard Analysis

and Critical Control Points (HACCP)

system.

The program, titled A Practical

Approach to HACCP, provides restaurant

operators with the tools to design,

implement and maintain a HACCP

system in their restaurants.

The program includes four videos

covering:

• Receiving to Cooking

• Cooking to Cooling

• A HACCP Case Study

• Managing Food Safety: A Practical

 Approach to HACCP

The videos run from 12 to 20

minutes and cost $89 each. There are

also two course books, one for participants and one for the instructor. Each

runs $45. Finally, the program includes

six HACCP posters, $10 each.

For more information, contact the

Education Foundation at 800/765-2122.

■ Food Safety For

Social Settings

Whether serving food at a church

supper or cooking out under the stars,

food preparers need to know how to

serve food safely. Why is this important?

Traditional foodborne illness

outbreaks often follow a church supper,

family picnic, wedding reception, or

other social event, according to the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Two training programs from Wyoming Extension focus on two common

social settings: fund-raising dinners and

camping.

Food Safety for Fund-raisers is a

video and guide that shows how to use a

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control

Points process to identify the points

where food safety problems could occur.

Safe Food for Outfitters is also a

video and guide. It targets organizers of

camping excursions. The video includes

advice on how to keep foods chilled--and

away from bears! It also has sanitation

tips and techniques for filtering out

waterborne parasites like giardia.

Both training programs are available

for $20 each. Call 307/766-4145. Or

write:

University of Wyoming

Cooperative Extension

P.O. Box 3354

Laramie, WY 82071-3354

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color,

national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply

to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print,

audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD).

To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W Whitten, Building, 14th and Independence Avenue,

SW, Washington DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice or TDD). USDA is an equal employment opportunity provider and employer.

The Food Safety Educator is produced by the Food

Safety Education and Communications Staff of the

Food Saftey and Inspection Service, USDA.

■ Stopping Germs in

Their Tracks!

An Ounce of Prevention Keeps the

Germs Away is the title of a new flyer

jointly produced by the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention in

partnership with the maker of LYSOL®

brand products.

An Ounce of Prevention is designed

to teach the general public, especially

families with children ages 1 to 12,

simple and inexpensive ways to prevent

the spread of infectious diseases. These

steps are:

• Handwashing

• Cleaning and disinfecting surface

• Handling and preparing food safely

• Immunizing children and adults

• Using antibiotics appropriately

• Keeping pets healthy and immunized

• Avoiding wild animals.

For a free brochure, call

1/800-995-9765.•

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