Partnership for Food Safety Education

FightBAC!

A Quarter Century of Educating Consumers about Food Safety

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.

BAC Fighter Betty Feng Teaches Food Safety to Underrepresented Communities

By Shawnte Loeri, Communications Associate, PFSE

Food is necessary for all human beings to survive. Preparing and eating food plays a huge role in all cultures, giving us joy in our lives and bringing us together. Not only do we want delicious food to eat with our families and friends, but we want that food to be safe.

Why is food safety education important? According to the CDC, 48 million people get sick each year from eating contaminated food. To help prevent these foodborne illnesses, we all play a role in handling food safely. Whether we are food suppliers, manufacturers, or consumers, we play a significant part in keeping food safe from the farm to the table.

A key element in influencing food handling behaviors is representation. People must see themselves in food safety messaging, which includes the person who delivers the messages. Representation matters.

That’s why the Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) is celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPI) by sharing the experience of community-based food safety educators like Dr. Yaohua “Betty” Feng, assistant professor/extension food safety specialist with Purdue University. She is helping to educate underrepresented communities on proper food handling and hand hygiene in the home.

Betty 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

Betty became interested in the food safety field at a young age. Her father was a HACCP-certified seafood processor in a small city. There weren’t a lot of resources to learn about food safety management, and her father didn’t have a food science degree to create his own food safety plans. Betty wanted to help her father, processors, and other food “guardians” to build their own food safety plans and to increase their compliance with food safety regulations. Thus, her love and passion for food safety education began. 

The Feng Lab at Purdue

Betty currently leads the Food Safety Human Factor Lab (also called Feng’s Lab) at Purdue University. This program was created in 2018 to bridge gaps between knowledge and practice in consumer food safety. Betty and her students are committed to using sociological approaches to explore cultural, social, and environmental factors that affect food safety behavior at home.

Dr. Yaohua “Betty” Feng

“My research and extension programs are closely integrated with a focus on decision making and behavior change in food safety,” says Dr. Betty Feng. “It’s widely known that increased knowledge level does not necessarily result in food handling behavior changes among food workers. Behavior change is the ultimate goal for food safety education and extension.”

Regarding her work, Betty acknowledges that many factors are associated with behavior change, including awareness, perception, culture, self-efficacy, and social norms. Her lab studies those factors and refers to them as “human factors” in food safety. Betty’s research programs identify and intervene in human factors in food safety management by means of innovative communication and education approaches. Her extension programs utilize those interventions to respond to food handlers’ unique learning needs.

What makes working in the lab a great experience for students? Betty shares that the students get a chance to learn about approaches to examining human factors in food safety management. They work with food handlers, who are the “guardians” of food safety. The experience gained from their work can be applied in a wide variety of career opportunities, including consumer insights and science communication.

Representation matters in food safety education

Betty says representation matters because underrepresented communities are at heightened risk due to the unique barriers they face, including lack of knowledge of some food safety practices, neighborhood geographical factors, cultural factors, and insufficient food handling tools.

The Feng Lab has developed extension programs that engage underrepresented communities in protecting themselves and their families from foodborne illness. They have conducted focus group sessions with 82 Hispanic and African-American families with young children and made home visits with 30 families. Her team identified the need for culturally-tailored food safety programs for low-income families, including (1) providing explanations about best practices; (2) delivering food safety education via trusted sources; and (3) developing strategies that account for participants’ environmental and financial situations. The Lab also designed and implemented a virtual food safety program that resulted in significant self-reported behavior change among participants.

The future of food safety education

Betty says there is a current trend in multi-disciplinary collaboration in food safety education. Not only collaborating with extension educators but other researchers and health information influencers. The Feng Lab is currently using some new tools to measure food handlers’ behavior changes, including eye-tracking. She’s really excited about this aspect of her work.

“My work on food safety needs the support of the Partnership for Food Safety Education to increase the impact by training the trainers,” says Dr. Feng. “Food safety education is part of the hurdle technology that improves food safety in our supply chain. I invite all educators to learn more and to support your loved ones’ decision-making regarding safe food handling.”

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

Dr. Yaohua “Betty” Feng is an assistant professor/extension food safety specialist with Purdue University. She can be reached at yhfeng@purdue.edu.

Honoring 25 Years of PFSE’s Dedication to Consumer Food Safety Education

Authored by Frank Yiannas, Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

I am honored to have this opportunity to mark the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) and to express my sincere thanks for PFSE’s unwavering dedication to public health.

PFSE is a valued partner in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) work to bend the curve of foodborne illness in this country, and around the world.

We often say food safety is a shared responsibility. Industry has the primary responsibility for producing safe foods, but regulatory agencies also play a critical role. For example, the FDA and other government entities are responsible for helping to ensure that requirements are met to keep food safe from source to table.

While consumers should expect that food producers have done all that they can to provide them with safe food, consumers play a role too when preparing and handling food at home. And, after all, we’re all consumers. We all have a responsibility to observe safe food handling and storage practices at home, to help protect ourselves and our families from harmful microbes that can contaminate food.

PFSE plays a critical role in providing consumers with the information they need to stay safe and, in this manner, completes an important part of the nation’s overall food safety net. Looking at the wealth of resources on PFSE’s website, it strikes me how empowering it is to let people know that there are actions they can take themselves to protect themselves and their families.

FDA has been working closely with PFSE since it was created in 1997 through a Memorandum of Understanding between government, industry, and consumer leaders. The Partnership soon developed the four messages that have become the standard in food safety education: Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill.

We have worked together on outreach materials for children and adults alike, including resources for those who provide food safety education in our communities. In fact, FDA has co-sponsored a series of PFSE national conferences on effective consumer food safety education since 2002. 

FDA’s partnership with PFSE has evolved and will continue to evolve as our approach to food safety continues to change to keep up with the times. The agency is working through our New Era of Smarter Food Safety goals to modernize our approach to food safety, and PFSE has been working on a parallel track to modernize consumer education on food safety issues. The way consumers get their food has changed dramatically with the rise of e-commerce and the proliferation of food-delivery apps. Consumers are also receiving information in new ways and through new mediums. PFSE is tailoring its messages and delivery vehicles to work in this new and changing landscape, providing resources to help protect consumers no matter how they get their foods and how they like to receive information.

Ultimately, what we’re all after is safe food for people everywhere. And that’s going require us to strengthen a food safety culture in which everyone, regardless of their role in the food system, cares about food safety — not just because it’s law, but rather it’s the right thing to do and we all care. To do this, we have to create a strong food safety culture along the entire farm-to-table continuum. 

A food safety culture must start on the farm, be present in food manufacturing facilities everywhere, occur in retail food establishments, and end in the home. FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety blueprint recognizes this. It’s also reflected in PFSE’s commitment to support and strengthen food safety at home. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the importance of educating consumers on the best food safety practices when cooking at home because more people are doing that now.

As we look towards the future, I believe the key to PFSE’s continued success lies in what it is already doing to bring together partners in the public and private sectors. I often say that there is so much we can do individually to keep food safe but there’s so much more we can do together. We can — we WILL — bend the curve of foodborne illness in this country, together.

“Queen of Germs” Teaches Students to Fight BAC!

By Stephanie Darilus, Development Manager, PFSE

Food safety education for young people is important for developing a good foundation in safe food handling behaviors. Young children are the key population for behavioral change as they gain autonomy.

It is important to address gaps in young people’s food safety knowledge and consistently motivate them to follow proper hand hygiene and safe food handling behaviors. As the future caregivers for others, and future food handlers, it is imperative to find creative and fun ways to educate our future food handlers.

Tracey Saxton is a family and consumer sciences educator at the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Known as the “Queen of Germs,” Tracey is at the forefront of supporting families in keeping their food safe at home. She graciously took the time to share with PFSE staff about her royal title, current food safety trends, and the future of food safety education.

Giving germs the royal treatment 

Tracey wanted to create a Halloween costume that would be kid-friendly, fun, and educational. The “Queen of Germs” costume is visually appealing for the students and keeps them engaged during the lesson. It also allows her to educate kids about the importance of proper handwashing in the classroom as well as reach families at wellness/health fairs and community events.

The Queen uses the Glo Germ™ kit to demonstrate the “clean” step of the core four food safety practices. This special kit allows students to see firsthand if they have removed all of the “germs” (represented by the Glo Germ™ product) when washing their hands. 

She said, “I believe these outreach efforts allow me to change the lives of individuals and families by sharing preventive health messaging on safe food handling practices known to reduce the risk of food poisoning.”

Tracey has seen an improvement in food safety behaviors. She uses Fight BAC! resources from the Partnership and Wash Your Paws, Georgia materials created by UGA Extension. Students become more aware and cautious of sharing germs, sharing items, or exchanging items after attending her sessions.

Tracey feels the best part of the “Queen of Germs” is being active in the community and educating families with science-based safe food handling information — all while having fun!

Role as an FCS educator

As a family and consumer sciences educator, Tracey participates in a variety of outreach activities using proven, research-based data to answer questions. She evaluates a work plan based on locally identified needs in the community to improve the quality of living for families and individuals.

Tracey also teaches individual programs focused on making healthy choices and nurturing families, including food and nutrition, family resource management and more. Finally, she collaborates with other organizations to provide programs to families in the local communities.

Speaking on the importance of this outreach, Tracey says, “These programs focus on the individual who makes a decision and the impact those decisions have on the family unit.”

Challenges and future of food safety education

Although the work is fulfilling, Tracey experiences some challenges teaching food safety to certain age groups. She says that she has to be more tenacious with high school-aged youth as they are an integral part of the workforce, especially in jobs involving food handling.

Tracey would like to see virtual simulations of food safety scenarios, such as witnessing what happens when raw meat isn’t cooked to a safe internal cooking temperature or when fresh produce isn’t stored properly. She recommends a cloud-based, interactive, hands-on remote stimulation for learning and practicing various food safety practices. Tracey also would love to see an e-learning course that uses different, simulated scenarios in a controlled environment to prepare learners for real-life cooking scenarios that require food safety practices.

Food safety trends

Tracey has observed many food safety trends that should be further explored. For example, curb dining at restaurants elevates uncertainty in the sector. Plus, delivering home meals leads to the possibility of delays in transportation, which raise issues about storage and distribution quality controls. She also thinks traditional restaurants, pop-ups, and ghost kitchens with quick services will be popular this year.

“I have learned that quick service leads to concerns about the safety of food and the risk of foodborne illness,” Tracey says. “Are foodservice establishments remembering to prepare and serve quality, safe food?”

Biggest takeaways from Tracey

  • Know your audience and explain germs in easy-to-understand terms Make it fun and relatable!
  • Incorporate lessons in daily life
  • Talk about ways to avoid harmful germs.
  • Emphasize the importance of proper handwashing.
  • Address the need for alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol is soap and water are not available


Tracey’s go-to resources


Thank you, Tracey, for being a food safety hero dedicated to providing fun food safety education activities for families and young people!

Tracey Saxton is a family and consumer sciences educator at the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. She can be reached at Tracey.Saxton@uga.edu.

Keep Takeout & Home-Delivered Food Safe

“Why do you have baking pans in your car?,” my friend asked me.

She was observing the small metal baking pans tucked in the back pockets of the front seats.

“I couldn’t find plastic trays that fit in the pockets,” I replied.

That really didn’t answer the question, did it? My family used trays to avoid spilling food on the seats or floor of our car when we ate in the vehicle. I looked for plastic trays but they were all too large to fit in the pockets. Small cookie sheets were a good substitute. 

During the early days of the pandemic, my husband and I picked up food to eat in our car or bring home. We put many miles on our vehicle during the early months of the pandemic.

We liked to see some other scenery outside of our home. While my husband drove, I arranged the food in their wrappers on our trays.

We found a spot with a small herd of deer, and we visited them regularly. Sometimes the deer walked right up to our parked vehicle. No, the deer didn’t get to sit in the backseat and enjoy a snack on a tray. Our car is too small for that.

Most families had options when many dine-in restaurants closed during the early pandemic. We could have opted for takeout, meal delivery, grocery delivery, or cook-it-yourself meal kits mailed to your home.

When the pandemic began, most restaurants closed for a while. Some restaurants only allowed takeout and others had drive-through windows. Unfortunately, some restaurants closed permanently due to loss of revenue and staffing challenges.

According to the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant industry lost $280 billion in sales during the first 13 months of the pandemic. Millions of workers lost their jobs either temporarily or permanently. Others did not return to food service work.

Life has shifted in many ways during the past two years, including how we obtain our food. Fortunately, the coronavirus is not spread through food, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The virus primarily spreads through tiny droplets in the air through close contact with people.

Most of us enjoy eating food prepared outside of our home, at least on occasion, and we need to follow safe food handling recommendations. The Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) recently launched Prep Yourself, a national campaign on handling delivered food safely.

Here are some key messages from the campaign for all of us to consider when using food delivery services. Most of these tips apply to take-out food also:

  • Before ordering, ask questions. What are the company’s safety standards? How do they respond if the product is delivered at an unsafe temperature or if it appears that tampering has taken place?
  • Be sure that someone is home when the food is delivered so the food can be stored properly in the refrigerator. If no one will be home, be sure to establish a safe place that is cool, shaded, and protected from pests. 
  • Encourage family members and guests to wash their hands for 20 seconds with soap and water before handling and eating food. If soap and water aren’t available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
  • When the food is delivered, the responsibility for safe handling becomes your responsibility. Look for stickers on perishable foods that say “Keep refrigerated” or “Keep frozen” and then follow the recommendations.
  • Handle the delivered food safely. If the food is fully cooked, serve it right away or keep it hot in an oven or preheated slow cooker. Cook, refrigerate, or freeze raw foods as soon as possible. Be aware of the “danger zone” (40 °F to 140 °F). Food should be kept cold (below 40 °F) or hot (above 140 °F).


Whether it’s cooked at home or at a restaurant, my family enjoys food from around the world. We love these Slow Cooker Chipotle Carnitas, a typical dish of Mexican cuisine. This recipe includes food safety prompts from the Safe Recipe Style Guide — and it’s downloadable in Spanish language!

“Carnitas” is the Spanish word for “little meats.” Remember to wash hands with soap and water after handling raw meat.

Your family will enjoy this spicy, slightly sweet, and savory dish. Add your favorite fresh toppings, like cilantro, avocado & a squeeze of lime for freshness!

Dr. Julie Garden-Robinson, R.D., L.R.D., is a food and nutrition specialist and professor in the Department of Health, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences at North Dakota State University Extension. She can be reached at julie.garden-robinson@ndsu.edu.

** Reprinted from NDSU Agriculture Communication **