Wake TV Video Collaboration is All About Food Safety

August 7, 2017

Public health educator Michelle Ricci and her team at the Wake County, NC Communicable Disease Program are always seeking new opportunities to deliver food safety messages to consumers in the county. They reached out to the county’s communications office about doing a food safety segment for Wake TV — a program that connects visitors and residents to news, services, interviews, and event information. Wake TV programming is available through their YouTube Channel.

The county’s communications office went a step further and offered to produce four short videos on each of the core home food safety practices: Clean, Separate, Cook and Chill. The four videos use information from FightBAC.org and rely on talented Wake County co-workers as “actors”. A colleague offered the use of the kitchen in her new apartment and the communication office’s digital media and design services staff filmed and produced the videos. A local Food Lion store manager graciously allowed the office to shoot footage for the videos in his store.

The videos aired on Wake TV at the beginning of August 2017. There are plans to promote the videos on Wake County’s website as part of their September Food Safety Education Month efforts. The videos will also be featured on social media, with special promotion planned for the winter holidays.

Please click on the thumbnail images to play videos.

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Three Ways BAC Fighters Can Boost Outreach

February 1, 2017

Whether you attended the CFSEC2017 or not!

The late January 2017 Consumer Food Safety Education Conference- Advancing Food Safety Though Behavior Change showed what a powerful force for preventive health we are! The conference shined a bright light on the outstanding work of BAC Fighters in the United States and beyond.

Keep the Momentum Going!

Tap into the lessons and resources that were shared by top experts in the field and our peers. Use these new tools and resources to build more effective programming and to build on your history of helping to keep consumers safe from food borne illness.

Here are 3 specific boosts you can start with:

Boost #1 – Review conference presentations www.fightbac.org/events/conference-2017-presentations/ and take just one day to consider how what you learned can be put to work for better consumer health today, next month, or in the year ahead!

conf slides

Boost #2 – Consider your “A-ha” moment. What really hit you while listening to a conference presenter? Write and tell us about it: mary.choate@fightbac.firelinkonline.com

Walmart's Frank Yiannas presents at CFSEC2017

Boost #3 – Start simply with evaluation in 2017! Get your team on board to use the new Evaluation Toolbox and Guide http://evaluationguide.fightbac.org

eval toolkit

Watch ecards from the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education throughout February for more ways to boost your consumer programming in the year ahead!

Food Safety Tips from a 150 Year Old Expert

December 9, 2016

Andrew Eccles, Nestlé in the United States

Nestlé has been around for a while now – 150 years in fact – so we’ve learned a thing or two about food safety. We also make sure we keep our work as fresh as we keep our food, which is why we refurbished our Nestle Quality Assurance Center in Dublin, Ohio this year.

While we test everything from the soil food grows in to the packaging it’s delivered in, we understand that you can’t go to such lengths at home, nor do you need to. A few simple ideas make a huge difference when it comes to protecting your safety – we already shared some of those ideas during the Story of Your Dinner twitter chat, and enjoyed hearing tips from other experts too.

With that in mind, we’re grateful to FightBAC for giving us the opportunity to share some tips straight from our kitchen to yours.

nestle-tomatos

We always source the best ingredients for everything we make. You can do the same when you’re cooking. Remember to make sure any food you’re using is safely within its “use by” date, and give fruit and vegetables a good rinse with clean running water before you eat or cook them.

Another way to take care of food is to make sure you’ve stored it properly. Check whether your groceries are best kept in the fridge, in an air tight container, or frozen. It’s also a good idea to store raw foods separate from ready-to-eat food, especially raw poultry, meat, and seafood.

Remember to keep up this separation when you start cooking. A different knife should be used for raw chicken than for vegetables, for example. In our kitchens at Nestlé, we use dedicated equipment for different ingredients to prevent cross-contamination.

If you’re cooking for friends, check if anyone has allergies well in advance! We provide allergen warnings on our food packaging, but chances are that you’re not labeling each dish on your table.

Sending out a quick message before you’ve planned your menu will give you plenty of time to plan delicious meals that aren’t an allergen risk for any of your guests.

nestle-dinner-table

Correct cooking isn’t just about taste and, if you’ll excuse the term, mouthfeel – it’s also about safety. Cooking to a safe temperature kills dangerous microorganisms. The difference between a dangerous raw piece of meat and a delicious cut is the application of the correct heat. Too little heat, microorganisms survive. Too much heat, you can destroy nutrients. Always check the correct cooking method and temperature.

Finally, it sounds pretty basic, but remember to wash your hands. Our hands touch lots of surfaces all day and pick up an array of bacteria and other nasty substances…you don’t want that on your food! Keep them clean.

Cooking and eating should be an enjoyable experience. Remembering these basics will keep your body as happy as your taste buds!

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