Food Safety Trivia Isn’t Trivial!

June 6, 2016

Jennifer Jackson of Anne Arundel County Maryland, Department of Aging and Disabilities, shares a BAC Fighter success story from the Older Americans Month Health and Wellness Fair they attended.

Her department set up a table on food safety which included Chelsea the Chicken, a cantaloupe cleaning demonstration, and their Food Safety Trivia Wheel.

An older couple approached their display and spun the Food Safety Trivia Wheel. Jennifer read their trivia question: “During a summer picnic, how long can food be left out before it needs to be refrigerated or thrown away?” The husband answered and said that he thought food could be left out for six hours!

After explaining the correct answer (found on The Partnership for Food Safety Education’s “Chill” handout), he exclaimed, “So, that’s why we all got sick during that trip to the amusement park!”

It turns out that he and his family planned a trip to an amusement park and packed a cooler of barbecue chicken to eat for lunch. The chicken was left in the cooler all day and no one checked to make sure that the temperature was kept out of the danger zone. After eating the chicken for lunch, everyone in his group suffered a bout of food poisoning. He and his wife told me that they would make sure they packed food safely in the future!

Jennifer Jackson
Assisted Living Program
Anne Arundel County Department of Aging and Disabilities
Annapolis, Maryland

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First Food Safety Awareness Day at McGill University

June 26, 2015

Veeda Padamsi and her classmates at McGill University hosted a food safety awareness day on campus in March. They highlighted the four core food safety practices – clean, separate, cook, and chill – with posters and activities. Veeda and her team are proud to say it’s the first food safety event ever held on campus! Great job, team!

Check out some pictures from Veeda’s event below!

Seriously? Food poisoning at a food safety meeting!

May 26, 2015

PFSE employee learns the value of her work first-hand

You may have heard the ironic news that attendees at the Food Safety Summit in Baltimore last April reported symptoms of food poisoning. An investigation by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found the illnesses were likely caused by Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens), bacteria that appears mostly in meat products and is the result of a failure to hold foods at a high enough temperature.

I was one of the 200+ conference attendees that experienced the food poisoning! It was an experience that I, a BAC Fighter and employee of the Partnership for Food Safety Education, was surprised to have at a food safety meeting (I mean- come on!).

The sleepless and long night of discomfort I experienced did make clear how important it is that everyone play their part in preventing food poisoning, and that a culture that engages everyone in keeping food safe is critical to reducing food poisoning and its severe health impacts.

As Mike Taylor, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine recently stated, “…We’re not talking about lots of stomach aches. We’re talking about life-changing illness in many cases.” For me, the C. Perfringens incidence demonstrated how important it is that young people learn about the risk of food poisoning, and also learn the healthy food handling habits that can be carried into adulthood.

This experience also shows why the work of BAC Fighters [YOU!] is ever more important. Using Fight BAC!® materials to reach youth and families in your communities is critical to establishing life-long healthy behaviors that reduce the risk of food poisoning. And when young people enter the food service workforce, safe food handling practices will be second nature!

Because food safety education isn’t about preventing a few stomach aches. It’s about reducing the risk of potentially life-changing illness.

Louisiana BAC Fighter Hosts Power Packed Camp

May 26, 2015

Linda Gauthier and her team at Louisiana State University (LSU) hosted a Microbiology and Food Safety Camp from July 14-18, 2014 for 7th and 8th graders on the LSU campus.

During the camp, students:

Constructed a giant microbe.
Researched bacteria and made three dimensional models using yarn, Styrofoam, etc.
Created food safety recipes cards with food safety tips for each ingredient and step of the recipe. Afterwards, they shared their recipes with other campers!
Learned the science of cooking a hamburger.
Designed a new package for food and created mock advertisements for their products.
Created their own “most unwanted pathogens” poster.
Visited a food engineering plant, the LSU Food Science Lab, and a microbiology lab.

The campers went home happy after a fun week learning about food safety and science! Linda has been teaching kids about food safety and science for over 30 years. Thanks for all of the hard work, Linda!

PFSE Staff Spoils BAC’s Summer Plans

April 26, 2015

Community event prepares a squad of junior BAC Fighters for summer

“Do you know what a germ is?”

That’s what we asked kids when they approached the Partnership for Food Safety Education’s table at the Koshland Science Museum on May 10^th, 2014. In “kidspeak” there is no standard definition for germ, but we were still impressed with their answers:

“Something that makes you sick!”

“It makes you throw up!”

“You can stay home from school!”

It was clear that they got the basic concept – germs can make you sick!

What they weren’t so clear on is how a germ can get into your body and make you sick. That’s where we stepped in to explain the basics of hand hygiene and safe food handling.

We showed them just how germy their hands were with a GloGerm demonstration and taught them the basics of clean, separate, cook, and chill using the BAC Drop Spring Story Contest and Perfect Picnic for iOS.

The kids were amazed at the ways a little germ they can’t see, smell, or taste might make sick. They left the event ready (and excited) to Fight BAC! with materials we gave them!

– Ashley Bell, Your B.F.F. (BAC Fighter Friend)