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Safe Recipe Activities
Safe Recipe Activity for Middle School Students
How did you do on the quiz? Don’t worry if you only got a few questions right. At the very end of the activity you’ll have a chance to take the quiz again and improve your score!
At the start of the safe recipe activity we learned that there is a tool called the Safe Recipe Style Guide that helps you turn basic recipes into safe recipes by adding food safety steps. The guide is separated into four behaviors that help improve food safety at home and prevent food poisoning: temperature, handwashing, avoiding cross-contamination, and safe handling of produce.
To learn more about these four areas of food safety try answering the 4 questions below. Then, click on the answer box to check your response and learn more.
Harmful germs in food are killed when food reaches a certain temperature. This temperature, called the safe minimum internal temperature, is different for each food.
To check the internal temperature of a food measure with a food thermometer in the middle of the food. Food thermometers are sold at most grocery stores.
Wash your hands with soap and water before you begin any food preparation or cooking. You should also wash your hands any time you touch raw meat, poultry, seafood, or eggs. Washing your hands keeps you from spreading germs!
Cross-contamination is how germs spread from one food or surface to another. Harmful germs in the juices of raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs can touch food that is ready to eat and make you sick.
You should wash cutting boards, knives, plates, and other items after touching these raw foods to prevent spreading germs. Also, do not rinse meat and poultry! This is not a safety step and can spread germs to your sink and other kitchen spaces.
Rinsing fruits and vegetables helps remove germs from the outside. You should wash all produce, even if it has a peel, skin, or rind that is removed before eating.
You should rinse the produce under cold running water. If it has a thick skin, like cucumber, potatoes, or melon, scrub it with a vegetable brush while rinsing under running water.
Health Is Freedom: Commit To Your Good Health This Fourth of July & Beyond
COVID-19 has raised people’s awareness around chronic underlying health conditions and how these conditions make it very difficult for a body to fight off infection. A NYU Langone Health study found that among coronavirus patients under age 60, those with obesity were twice as likely to be hospitalized and were at even higher risk of requiring critical care.
Obesity, kidney disease and diabetes, among other chronic health conditions, can make you more vulnerable to serious foodborne illness, too.
- Obesity: Overall, obesity appears to increase the risk of bacterial and viral infections. 42 percent of American adults live with obesity.
- Chronic Kidney Disease: Kidney failure can occur as a complication of food poisoning caused by E-coli or Shigella bacteria. A person with existing kidney disease can be at great risk for very serious complications from a foodborne illness.
- Diabetes: One consequence of diabetes is that it might leave you more susceptible to developing infections – including pathogens that cause foodborne illness.
128,000 Americans are hospitalized each year as a result of a foodborne disease, but many more don’t seek medical care.
We all want to have freedom from illness.
If you or someone in your family is at greater risk of infection due to an underlying condition, then now is a great time to commit the entire family to consistent practice of food safety fundamentals:
- Clean
- Separate
- Cook
- Chill
Reducing your household’s risk of food poisoning through proper hand hygiene, surface cleaning, handling, preparation and storage of food, will pay off with many benefits, including reducing risk of other bacterial or viral diseases.
Here’s a quick guide to home food safety basics and links to download handy short guides for your family and friends.
Clean hands & surfaces often
- Wash hands with soap and water for 20 seconds before and after handling food and after using the bathroom, changing diapers, handling pets or using your digital devices.
- Wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils and counter tops with hot soapy water after preparing each food item and before you go onto the next food.
- If you are in a large household, make sure to swap out clean kitchen towels every day or two.
Download the Clean fact sheet.
Separate to prevent cross-contamination
- Separate raw meat, poultry, seafood and eggs from other foods in your grocery shopping cart, grocery bags and in your refrigerator.
- Use one cutting board for fresh produce and a separate one for raw meat, poultry and seafood.
Download the Separate fact sheet.
Cook to the safe internal temperature
- Use a food thermometer to make sure meat, poultry and egg dishes reach an internal temperature that will kill harmful bacteria.
- When microwaving food, always follow package instructions. Make sure there are no cold spots in food (where bacteria can survive) when cooking in a microwave oven.
Download the Cook fact sheet and temperature chart.
Chill promptly in refrigerator
- Cold temperatures slow the growth of harmful bacteria. Keeping a constant refrigerator temperature of 40 °F or below is one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of foodborne illness. Do you know your refrigerator temperature? Measure with a separate appliance thermometer.
- Never let raw meat, poultry, eggs, cooked food or cut fresh fruits or vegetables sit at room temperature more than two hours before putting them in the refrigerator or freezer (one hour when the temperature is above 90 °F).
Download the Chill fact sheet.
On this Independence Day — and beyond — make a renewed commitment to home food safety and hand hygiene to protect your health. Good health is freedom!
Shelley Feist is Executive Director of the Partnership for Food Safety Education. Her favorite Fourth of July food is watermelon. (TIP: Rinse with running tap water before cutting your watermelon!)
Your Best Recipe, Only Safer! Enter the 30-Minute Meals Safe Recipe Contest!
Have you found that the coronavirus pandemic has set you up to do much more cooking at home? If so, you are among the 45%* of Americans who are cooking more meals at home now.
We’re excited to offer a great way for you to share that best main dish recipe you’ve been working on. Your winning recipe could be shared with thousands of other people through the Partnership for Food Safety Education’s Safe Recipe Contest!
The contest kicks off June 23, 2020, and it’s easy to enter! Here are the highlights:
- Use the Safe Recipe Style Guide to write your recipe instructions — or turn your existing recipe into a safe recipe using the guide. It’s easy!
- Take a high-quality photo (300+ PPI)
- Visit the Safe Recipe Contest entry page and fill out the submission form, making sure to attach both your recipe and photo.
It’s that simple to enter!
You might ask — what is a safe recipe? A safe recipe incorporates basic food safety steps. So when you — or anyone — uses the recipe, you’ll be reducing your risk of food poisoning. The Partnership for Food Safety Education’s Safe Recipe Style Guide walks you through the process of writing a safe recipe.
When recipes contain food safety instructions, people follow them. In fact, 90% of people wash their hands using recipes with safety instructions, compared to only 59% who wash their hands while preparing food without safety instructions.
To enter the Safe Recipe Contest, you must be a U.S. resident and eligible in one of these four categories:
- BAC Fighters – Health and Food Safety Educators, Nutrition Educators, Dietitians, Teachers or Cooperative Extension agents
- Food Writers/Bloggers – You must have an active blog or social media platform where you promote/post recipes.
- Kids – Any youth ages 5 to 17. You must have a parent/guardian permission to enter.
- Employees of Food Retailers and Grocery Stores – Your employer must be a member of the Food Industry Association (FMI) or National Grocers Association (NGA).
Choose your category when you fill out the submission form.
One winner will be chosen from each of the four categories below for a cash prize of $50 AND the winning recipe will be featured in an online cookbook distributed to thousands of people through fightbac.org! Each category winner will be entered into the Grand Prize selection pool.
Qualified judges will choose a Grand Prize winner who will receive:
- A total $100 cash prize
- Feature in the safe recipes online cookbook
- AND see their winning recipe developed into a professionally-produced recipe video in English and Spanish
How cool is that?
So bang your pots and pans (as you take them out to cook), and get ready to enter your recipe before the Monday, August 17 deadline!
This is the first PFSE recipe contest, which is a major effort to make every recipe a safe recipe. We’re excited to see and (possibly share) your submission. You may enter two (2) recipes per household.
More contest information and official rules are available at fightbac.org/recipecontest. Please look around the rest of our site for dozens of free food safety resources.
Don’t forget to sign up for our emails so you will NOT miss any news about the contest.
Remember, your recipe entry must be received by Monday, August 17. Incomplete entries will not be considered. Winners will be announced online in early September 2020.
When you enter, be sure to Tweet about it by using #SafeRecipeContest!
Don’t want to enter yourself, but know a great cook who should? Share the contest!
With dozens of new delicious and safe recipes, pretty soon everyone will make improvements in handwashing, using food thermometers, rinsing produce and other healthy food preparation behaviors.
If you have any questions about the contest or the Safe Recipe Style Guide, please contact us at MySafeRecipe@fightbac.org.
We look forward to seeing your safe, delicious recipes! Good luck!
*April 2020 Axios-Ipsos poll
Chef Leslie Owens is lead BAC Fighter on the 30-Minute Meals Safe Recipe Contest. Leslie is a chef and writer from Central Florida. She is guardian of the furry Stooges.
Featured Resources
On this page we’ll be highlighting just a few of our dozens of free resources and downloads. If you don’t find what you are looking for here, be sure to explore many more resources at fightbac.org.
NEW! Safe Recipe Lesson for Middle School
The Safe Recipe Lesson teaches students how to use the Safe Recipe Style Guide to create a recipe that includes basic instructions for safe food handling, preparation and storage.
Multiple studies show that when people follow recipes that include basic food safety instructions, they significantly increase food safety behaviors. The Safe Recipe Style Guide provides easy additions to any recipe that improve food safety practices.
The Safe Recipe Lesson is suitable for grades 6 to 8. It is aligned with National Health and Science Education Standards, and has been reviewed by a curriculum specialist. A lesson plan for teachers and a student guide are available as separate downloads. The Safe Recipe Style Guide, a safe minimum internal temperatures chart, and five sample recipes are included in both downloads.
Safe Recipes for Kids
These kid-friendly recipes include basic food safety steps so your kids are more likely to wash their hands and practice safe food handling behaviors while preparing food.
Handwashing Tips
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.
Follow the CDC’s five steps for effective handwashing.
- Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap.
- Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
- Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
- Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
- Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.
If soap and water aren’t available, you can use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
For more information visit www.cdc.gov/handwashing.
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