Blog | Partnership for Food Safety Education

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.

Meridian Middle School is ON THE CASE!

February 26, 2015

Rebecca Richter, a Consumer and Family Science teacher, instructs her 6th grade students on the importance of safe food handling by empowering them to be food detectives. For years, Rebecca has been showing her students the Food Detectives video because her students can relate to its messages. She bases her lessons on this video, encouraging her students to think like detectives figuring out a foodborne illness outbreak. They even use Fight BAC!® stickers to make sheriff-like stars to deputize themselves. Sometimes, Rebecca says, the students tell HER when she is doing something incorrectly like improperly washing her hands. “They get excited for food safety and they take it home with them,” she says, further explaining that her students usually do not hear about safe food handling until they get to her classroom. Watch out- don’t get stopped by a food detective in Meridian!

Dedicated BAC! Fighter, Diane Van, Retires

February 26, 2015

After 26 years dedicated to raising the bar on consumer food safety education, Diane Van recently retired from the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Diane started her career as a technical information specialist on the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline. She later became manager of the hotline and led the development of Ask Karen- USDA’s nationally-celebrated virtual consumer food safety representative. Diane later was promoted to Deputy Director of USDA’s Food Safety Education Staff where she played a major role in the development and implementation of the Ad Council’s Food Safe Families campaign.

Diane has been a great friend to the Partnership for Food Safety Education and the Fight BAC!® campaign. She contributed immeasurably over the years to the Partnership’s success through participation on working groups and Partnership’s convenings.

Thank you Diane for a career dedicated to public service in consumer food safety education!