Partnership for Food Safety Education

FightBAC!

Don’t Wash Your Chicken!

Promoting Safe Poultry Handling During September National Food Safety Education Month


Salmonella causes more foodborne illnesses than any other bacteria, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To celebrate National Food Safety Education Month in September, the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE), in collaboration with Drexel University and New Mexico State University, has launched “Don’t Wash Your Chicken,” an educational program aimed at households preparing and cooking raw chicken at home.

Informed by research from Drexel University, this program explains why certain poultry handling practices at home are risky and provides practical guidance people can take to reduce their risk of food poisoning.

“This year marks the 25th anniversary of collective efforts to advance safe food handling messages, including safe poultry handling,” said Britanny Saunier, PFSE executive director. “This program addresses why people still wash their chicken and helps them understand why they don’t need to wash raw poultry. It is our hope that, collectively, we’re able to break through those barriers and influence real behavior change that reduces the rate of foodborne illnesses through these new tools.”

This program features four animated videos to help home cooks stay healthy while preparing and cooking raw chicken. Aimed to reach a younger audience, the videos provide surprising, catchy food safety messages to grab the audience’s attention.

Recent research found that home cooks continue to wash raw poultry because they desire to control the process of preparing food, lack of trust in chicken processing, and the habitual nature of the behavior. Research also revealed that home cooks are willing to change their behavior if they understand the “why” behind the guidance. This program aims to help households understand how chicken is processed before they get it, learn the risks of washing raw poultry, as well as how to safely handle and cook poultry at home.

Along with the videos, this program highlights three key safe poultry handling messages:   

  • Washing or rinsing chicken increases risk. Salmonella, Campylobacter, and other harmful bacteria live on raw chicken. Washing or rinsing doesn’t remove this: worse, it helps the bacteria spread. When you add water through washing or rinsing, you give these bacteria a way to travel throughout your kitchen.
  • Chicken has already been washed. Today’s manufacturing cleans the chicken, so there is no filth, feathers, or anything else on it that needs to be washed off. Poultry may have a coating of water and protein: this gets cooked off, or you can remove it with a clean paper towel.
  • There’s a better, safer way to cook chicken. If you see anything on the chicken you want to get rid of, wipe it off with a clean paper towel. Separate raw chicken from fresh and ready-to-eat foods. Keep surfaces clean by washing them with hot, soapy water. Cooking chicken to 165°F using a food thermometer will kill any dangerous bacteria and make it safe to eat.


Access the campaign information and resources on PFSE’s safe poultry handling webpage. 

By Shawnte Loeri, Communications Associate, PFSE

“Relish” in Food Safety This Summer!

July is National Hot Dog Month and National Hot Dog Day is Wednesday, July 20! This summer, people in the United States will consume millions of hot dogs at family BBQs, restaurants and amusement parks. 

What better way to celebrate than by safely preparing and cooking delicious hot dogs! 

Hot dogs carry the potential to be contaminated by the dangerous foodborne bacteria, Listeria monocytogenes. If they are not cooked and handled properly, hot dogs can cause Listeriosis, a serious bacterial infection.

The CDC estimates that Listeriosis causes about 1,600 illnesses and 260 deaths in the U.S. annually. The infection is most likely to sicken pregnant women and their newborns, adults aged 65 or older, and people with weakened immune systems. Pregnant women are especially at serious risk, since Listeriosis can cause miscarriages and stillbirths.

Here’s how you can enjoy hot dogs and protect yourself from food poisoning this summer:


To celebrate National Hot Dog Month, we’ve created three fun, safe recipes for you!


Follow these simple food safety steps and enjoy America’s favorite meal on a bun!

Melanie Safi is studying Health & Nutrition Sciences with a concentration in Foods and Nutrition. She serves as PFSE Communications and Marketing Intern in the spring and summer of 2022.

Leading Organizations in Food and Health Invest in Foodborne Illness Prevention

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. 

Our Shared Goal of Reducing Foodborne Illness



Authored by Dr. Robert Tauxe, Director of the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases in the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Every year, foodborne diseases result in an estimated 48 million people getting sick, 128,000 being hospitalized, and 3,000 dying in the United States. Many foods are linked to foodborne illness, and contamination can occur at any point from farm to fork — during production, processing, distribution, or preparation.

CDC’s efforts to prevent foodborne illness range from working with federal agencies, industry, and other partners on effective methods to reduce contamination on farms and in processing facilities, to equipping the public with information needed to protect their health. Educating consumers about how to prevent foodborne illness while preparing foods in their home is an important part of our overall effort to make food safe.

CDC and other federal agencies have worked with the Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) since 1997 to present consistent advice to the public and to food safety educators. Working together, we develop consumer-focused messages about safe food handling that are based in science. As part of this partnership, 25 years ago, we created the core four food safety messages — Clean, Separate, Cook and Chill — that we still promote today. Additionally, CDC has provided input on PFSE food safety materials, shared CDC materials, presented at PFSE conferences, and contributed to PFSE webinars and trainings.

CDC has also identified prevention priorities that address some of the most pressing concerns related to foodborne diseases: 


We look forward to continued collaboration with PFSE and other partners to protect the public’s health.

Together, we share the goal of reducing the risk of foodborne illness for the consumer by working closely with federal partners, consumer groups, and industry to address food safety.

CDC will continue to do this by testing food safety messages and consumer materials, conducting behavioral research related to food safety, and developing communication and educational resources for external partners that reflect CDC’s understanding of foodborne illness.

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.