Search Results for: handwashing

Global Handwashing Day

October 15 is Global Handwashing Day!

Washing your hands is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of germs.

Studies have shown that handwashing can prevent 1 in 3 diarrhea-related sicknesses and 1 in 5 respiratory infections.

Learn how to properly wash your hands with soap and water, and show others how to practice good hand hygiene.

Participate in Global Handwashing Day

For Global Handwashing Day on Saturday, October 15, let’s commit to promoting proper handwashing and hand hygiene! Here are some ways you can participate:

Watch the replay of the webinar Clean Hands, Healthy Home! which highlighted observational research on consumer handwashing, and how handwashing awareness and behavior have shifted due to COVID-19. CEUs are available!
Post a handwashing tip or graphic (see below) on social media with the hashtags #GlobalHandwashingDay and #foodsafety.
Share this handwashing IQ quiz on your social networks. This short quiz tests the knowledge of proper handwashing and food safety steps.
Share the handwashing coloring placemat on social media with the hashtags #GlobalHandwashingDay and #foodsafety.

Clean Hands, Healthy Home!

NEW! Just in time for Global Handwashing Day, health and food safety educators are invited to download and share these resources on social media and in your outreach.

The infographic (right) is available as a JPG file and printable PDF file.

These colorful social graphics teach families how to properly wash hands while preparing food and handling raw meat, flour and eggs.

Use these sample social media posts along with the graphics on this page. Let’s help educate families on proper hand hygiene!

Teach Kids Proper Handwashing

Food Delivery

Know your role! As the way we receive food changes, the core food safety practices remain essential to protecting our health and the health of those we love.

Washing your hands is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of germs. Wash your hands with clean, running water and soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food. If soap and water aren’t available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

Learn more about the three simple steps you need to follow to keep your delivered food safe!

Free Downloads

Food safety starts at home! Check out these free resources to help keep families healthy while preparing food at home.

The Core Four Practices

Handwashing Tips for Kids

Safe Poultry Handling

The Story of Your Dinner

Kids Activities

These kid-friendly activities will help teach young ones how to properly wash their hands, as well as other food safety steps to help keep them healthy!

Scrub Club

Food Safety Activity Sheets

Coloring Placemats

Games & Recipes

Additional Resources

Global Handwashing Day was founded by the Global Handwashing Partnership, and is an opportunity to design, test, and replicate creative ways to encourage people to wash their hands with soap at critical times. Global Handwashing Day is celebrated every year on October 15th.

Handwashing for Ordinary People in a Time of Novel Coronavirus

March 11, 2020

Have you been hearing in the news, at school and at work that there are important things you need to do to stay healthy?

BTW, the coronavirus handwashing advice you’ve been hearing about has always been recommended for your healthy daily life!

That’s right, these handwashing basics should be a part of your daily life and your family and friends too! Here’s the Handwashing How!

How should I wash my hands?

Check it out — there are 5 easy steps.

Wet your hands with warm running water and apply soap.
Rub your hands together to make a lather and scrub them well. Be sure to scrub the backs of your hands, between your fingers and under your nails.
Continue rubbing hands for at least 20 seconds, about the time it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice.
Rinse your hands well under running water.
Dry your hands using a clean cloth or paper towel.

This video from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gives you all the basics. Share this video with everyone you know.

So now you know how.

When should I wash my hands to protect myself and others from the risk of harmful germs?

Well, there are many times throughout the day, including:

Before eating food
Before, during and after preparing food
Before and after treating a cut or wound
Before and after caring for someone who is sick
After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
After handling uncooked eggs or raw meat, poultry or seafood (or their juices)
After blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing
After touching an animal or animal waste
After touching garbage
After using the toilet or assisting another with doing so

Also, consider that your smartphone or tablet could be a source of contamination. If you use your device in the kitchen while preparing food, you should wash your hands after holding or touching the device.

What should I use to wash my hands?

Research shows that “plain” soap is just as good as any other soap. Using soap and water is the best option.

If running water is not available for handwashing, then use a hand sanitizer as a back-up. Your hand sanitizer product should be at least 60% alcohol content in order to be effective.

Finally, it is important to take time to help young children wash hands properly.

I know, I know. You’re thinking: I can’t keep up with all the times during the day my child should wash his or her hands.

Still, take time to model proper handwashing. The research about the benefits of regular handwashing says it all. Modeling proper handwashing sets kids up for a healthy life!

Download a free poster or this Happy Hands song placemat to remind your kids of the 5 steps to proper handwashing!

Happy Handwashing!

Shelley Feist is the Executive Director with the Partnership for Food Safety Education. She can be reached at (202) 220-0651 or sfeist@fightbac.org. Connect: LinkedIn | Twitter

BAC Fighter Shannon Coleman Incorporates DEI into Food Safety Education

February 1, 2023

By Britanny Saunier, Executive Director, PFSE

Everyone has a role to play in food safety, whether you are a home cook, a courier for a food delivery service, a food producer, a regulator, a community educator, or a middle school science teacher. Your handwashing and food handling habits matter to reducing the risk of foodborne illnesses, for yourself and for your loved ones.

You’ve likely asked, “But how do I make a difference and actually help people practice food safety?” A key element to influencing food handling behaviors is representation. People must see themselves in food safety messaging, which includes the deliverer of the messages. Representation matters.

That’s why the Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) is celebrating Black History Month by sharing the experience of community-based food safety educators like Dr. Shannon Coleman, assistant professor/state extension specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. She is helping to lead conversations about properly incorporating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion into food safety education efforts.

Shannon graciously took the time to share her experience as an educator, her thoughts on representation in food safety, and what excites her the most about her work to prevent foodborne illnesses in her community.

How it all began

Shannon began her professional career in food safety during her doctoral program in Animal Science at Colorado State University. During her doctoral program, she studied fresh produce safety. However, Shannon’s interest in food safety was sparked after performing research in a dairy food and produce safety laboratory as an undergraduate.

Representation matters in food safety education

Shannon says representation matters because “our audience is diverse.” She is starting to incorporate cultural competency in programming, especially when working with a diverse audience. Through her work with a diverse audience, Shannon has learned to leave her assumptions at the door and think about how this information would benefit their lives.

Most challenging part of being a Black woman in the field

“The community of Black females in food safety is small, which makes it hard for us to all know that each other exists,” Shannon says.

However, through Shannon’s two networks — Iowa State University and Alabama A&M University — a group of Black female educators have developed a small community. This community has started conversations about properly incorporating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and collaborations. A few members of the group presented about DEI at the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) annual conference in summer 2021.

Explore stories of different groups of people in food safety

As an educator for the lay audience and the classroom, Shannon has learned that stories stick with people. During lectures, she purposely shares stories about consumers who have been impacted by foodborne illness and companies who have been impacted by a foodborne outbreak.

Food safety resources for underrepresented communities

Shannon’s team is currently working on translating existing produce safety videos into Spanish language. They are also developing fact sheets. This project is a collaborative project which involves the ISU Brenton Center for Agricultural Instruction and Technology Transfer (BCAIT); Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS); Iowa Farm Union (IFU); and Davis Blasini from Cornell University Produce Safety Alliance. The Brenton Center is facilitating the video editing. Both IDALS and IFU are financially supporting this project, and Davis is serving as their expert in cultural competency.

Trend that should be further explored

According to Shannon, food preservation is always a trending topic. The North Central Food Safety Educator Network that she co-leads with Dr. Julie Garden-Robinson, has developed several resources related to the topic. As a consumer, Shannon has seen several inappropriate recipes and practices on social media. She strongly encourages people to use tested food preservation recipes.

Most exciting part about working in food safety

Recently Shannon’s extension director mentioned that she’s had some flexibility in her current role. She has shared food safety education with diverse audiences, such as gardeners, 4-H judges, fresh produce growers, cottage food producers, and small food processors. Due to this variety, Shannon’s days and weeks are never the same, so she rarely gets bored.

Thank you, Shannon, for all your hard work in food safety education!

Dr. Shannon Coleman is an assistant professor/state extension specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. She can be reached at scoleman@iastate.edu.

Leading Organizations in Food and Health Invest in Foodborne Illness Prevention

July 13, 2022

Nonprofit Partnership for Food Safety Education secures new supporters in effort to improve public health outcomes

Arlington, Va. — The non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) raises awareness of foodborne illness prevention through free, science-based food safety education programs. PFSE is excited to announce Wayne Farms and Kroger Company have invested as Contributing Partners, joining 40 leading organizations to increase public awareness of safe food handling and hand hygiene.

“As the Partnership celebrates its 25th anniversary, we are pleased to have Wayne Farms and Kroger join our work to help prevent foodborne illness,” said Michael Roberson, chairman of the Board of PFSE and director of corporate quality assurance with Publix Super Markets, Inc. “We will continue working with our partners, federal liaisons, and health and food safety educators as we continue to focus on food safety education for consumers.”

According to the CDC, an estimated 48 million people in the United States are affected by foodborne illnesses each year. Certain groups of people are at increased risk of hospitalization and potentially life-threatening conditions. For example, children under age five are disproportionately affected by serious foodborne illness, represent half of all hospitalizations in the U.S. each year.

Contributing Partners provide year-round funding that allows PFSE to serve more than 9 million consumers with free downloadable, science-based tools and resources that they can access at fightbac.org. Partners’ investments also support a network of 13,000 community-based health and food safety educators providing free resources to advance their community-based work as well as educational events such as the biannual Consumer Food Safety Education Conference.

“At a time when food costs and demands on food banks are increasing, it’s so important to make sure people know how to handle food safely to stay healthy,” said Britanny Saunier, executive director of PFSE. “Foodborne illness is serious and can result in chronic health conditions for many. The investment and thought leadership from passionate organizations, federal and state agencies, consumer groups, and food industry associations are critical to advancing food safety education.”

For more information about PFSE and consumer food safety education, visit www.fightbac.org.

About PFSE
The non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education is the originator of science-based food safety messages and the national leader in developing and disseminating information around the linkage of food safety consumer education with positive health outcomes. Consumers and food safety and health educators can download free food safety education information from the Partnership’s website at www.fightbac.org. The Partnership is the creator and steward of the popular Fight BAC!® national food safety education campaign.

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Shawnte Loeri is the Communications Associate with the Partnership for Food Safety Education. She can be reached at sloeri@fightbac.org.

A Quarter Century of Educating Consumers about Food Safety

June 6, 2022

Authored by Sandra Eskin, Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service

Congratulations to the Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) on reaching your 25-year milestone.

The Partnership was formed to advance the development of science-based, consumer-directed messages to promote safe food handling practices in the United States. I thank this group for its continued dedication to protecting families across the U.S. from foodborne illness.

A lot has changed since 1997, the year PFSE was founded, and food safety has come a long way since then. At that time, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) was in the process of finalizing and implementing HACCP regulations. This landmark approach to food safety underscored the reality that the companies producing meat and poultry products are primarily responsible for their safety. FSIS’ job is to make sure that companies are doing their jobs. We also need to make sure that consumers know and follow safe food handling practices to protect themselves and their loved ones from foodborne illness. That’s why the Partnership’s job is so important.

To innovate on meaningful food safety messages, PFSE draws its partners from the best in food safety education, including consumer groups, food industry associations, governmental bodies, and academia. Out of this effort, evidence-based food safety messaging has been created, and food safety experts have worked together to deliver coordinated messaging firmly rooted in science.

PFSE has been an indispensable part of USDA’s efforts to tackle foodborne illness. PFSE helps provide the tools necessary for informed food handling. We support and promote the PFSE safe food recipe guide to encourage consumers to follow safe handling practices before, during and after preparing a meal. We continually work with PFSE on reaching consumers. Additionally, we look forward to new and exciting partnership opportunities that can pave the way for our safe food handling messages to reach those at particularly high risk for foodborne illness and those people in the U.S. in marginalized or overlooked communities.

One challenge has been how we can better reach younger audiences. This group requires different outreach strategies than past generations, and we are looking at strengthening our presence on social media to deliver food safety messaging. Another focus is measuring whether consumers are changing their behavior as a result of our messages. Recent FSIS consumer research studies have revealed that handwashing remains low, so we need to find better ways to reach our audience with messaging that resonates deeply and promotes behavioral change. In the spirit of this partnership, FSIS is committed to making sure that our research benefits not only our own food safety education efforts, but also those of our public health partners.

Going forward, I wish PFSE continued success in its critical role of protecting consumers from foodborne illness by encouraging them to follow safe food handling practices.