Partnership for Food Safety Education

FightBAC!

  • Food Safety Basics
    • The Core Four Practices
    • Featured Resources
  • Food Poisoning
    • About Foodborne Illness
    • Foodborne Pathogens
    • Causes & Symptoms
    • Food Safety Glossary
  • Food Safety Education
    • National Food Safety Education Month
    • Safe Poultry Handling
    • Food Safety Mythbusters
    • Prep Yourself: Delivery Food Is on the Way
    • The Story of Your Dinner
    • Flour & Home Food Safety
    • Safe Produce
    • Recall Basics
    • Go 40 or Below
    • Safety in All Seasons
  • K-12 Education
    • Curricula & Programs
    • Hands On
    • Kids Games & Activities
    • School Lunches
  • Child Care
    • Babies & Toddlers
    • Child Care Training
  • Safe Recipes
    • Safe Recipe Style Guide
    • Safe Recipe Activity for Middle School
    • Cookbooks
    • Appetizers
    • Side Dishes
    • Entrees
    • Desserts
  • Free Resources
    • Coronavirus Resources
    • Recorded Webinars
    • World Food Safety Day
    • Global Handwashing Day
    • Recursos en español
    • Evaluation Toolkit
  • About Us
    • Partnership & History
    • Board of Directors
    • Who Is Involved
    • PFSE Team
    • Brand Assets
    • BAC Fighter Ambassadors
    • Job Openings
    • Contact Us
  • Get Involved
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • 2023 Conference
  • News & Blogs

Hot Off the Grill: Home Grilling Safety Tips

May 11, 2020

Families are doing more grilling this year. Nielsen reported that fresh meat alternative sales increased 255% in the last week of March (compared to the same week in 2019), fully outpacing the growth of meat sales, which increased 53% over the same period.

Fight BAC! is here to help you out with a few essential tips on handling meat safely, and how grilling safely at home can keep you and your family healthy.

Clean hands & surfaces

Washing your hands and surfaces the correct way will help reduce the risk of harmful germs:

  • Wash your hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food.
  • Wash your cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and counter tops with hot soapy water after preparing each food item and before you go on to the next food.
  • Do not rinse raw meat or poultry before cooking it. This is not a safety step, and it could spread dangerous germs around your kitchen.


Thawing meat

woman and daughter washing at kitchen sinkYou may be buying more meats in bulk right now and freezing for later use. Make sure to thaw meats properly:

  • 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).
  • Never thaw food at room temperature. Food must be kept at a safe temperature during thawing.
  • There are three safe ways to defrost food: in the refrigerator, in cold water, and in the microwave. Food thawed in cold water or in the microwave should be cooked immediately

Marinades

Everyone loves a good marinade! Make sure to safely marinate and store your meat:

  • Always marinate foods in the refrigerator, not on the counter or outdoors.
  • Don’t use sauce that was used to marinate raw meat or poultry on cooked food.
  • Reserve a portion of the unused marinade to use as a sauce.

Grilling temps

meat thermometer checking grilled meatWhen it’s time to grill the food, cook it to a safe internal temperature for safety and quality. Use a food thermometer to be sure! 

  • Beef, pork, veal and lamb (roast, steaks and chops): 145 °F with a three-minute “rest time” after removal from the heat source
  • Ground meats: 160 °F
  • Poultry (whole, parts or ground): 165 °F
  • Eggs and egg dishes: 160 °F, but cook eggs until both the yolk and the white are firm; scrambled eggs should not be runny
  • Fin fish: 145 °F
  • Shrimp, lobster and crabs: flesh pearly and opaque
  • Clams, oysters and mussels: shells open during cooking
  • Scallops: milky white, opaque and firm
Download the Safe Minimal Internal Temperatures Chart

Avoid cross-contamination

chicken and produce kept separate on counterCross-contamination is how harmful bacteria can be spread. Improper handling of raw meat, poultry or seafood can create an inviting environment for cross-contamination:

  • Never place cooked food on a plate that previously held raw meat, poultry or seafood.
  • Use one cutting board for fresh produce and a separate one for raw meat, poultry and seafood.
  • Be sure to have plenty of clean utensils and platters on hand.

Leftovers

After the meal, remember to handle leftovers safely to prevent foodborne illness:

  • Plan on enough storage space in the refrigerator and freezer. In the refrigerator, air needs to circulate to keep the temperature at 40 °F or below. Use an appliance thermometer in your refrigerator to monitor the temperature.
  • Divide large amounts of leftovers into shallow containers for quicker cooling in the refrigerator.
  • Leftovers stored in the refrigerator should be consumed within 3-4 days
  • Reheat leftovers to 165 °F before eating.

woman washing vegetables in kitchenTo help you Fight BAC!® (harmful bacteria) this grilling season, we’ve collected five grilling recipes with built-in food safety and hand hygiene steps.

Check out food safety videos on grilling and safe food preparation on the Food Safety YouTube channel.

Have a happy and safe grilling season!

Shawnte Loeri is the Communications Associate with the Partnership for Food Safety Education. She can be reached at sloeri@fightbac.org.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: BAC Fighter, Core Four Practices, Food handling, food poisoning, food safety, Food safety education, foodborne illness, fridge, grill, Grill Master, grilling, grilling season, grilling temperature, grilling temps, Handwashing, leftover, leftovers, marinade, marinades, marinate, meat, protein, summer, summer grilling, Summer picnic, thaw, thawing, thawing meat, wash hands

Lisa’s Table Is All About Safe Dinners

April 3, 2020

Meet Lisa

Lisa Treiber is a dedicated BAC Fighter who is passionate about keeping her community safe. She is an Extension Agent at Michigan State University, and she regularly uses Fight BAC! resources in her curriculum.

Lisa values raising awareness around safe food handling practices. Throughout the semester she teaches courses that remind students how to stay healthy. She also shares The Story of Your Dinner resources — particularly around the holiday season. She has done this for many years and has noticed that her community responds positively to it.

Lisa’s Table Spreads Awareness for the Holidays

This past holiday season, Lisa dedicated a table to food safety in the atrium of the Midland County Building Department. She enlarged food safety tips from The Story of Your Dinner and made them into laminated tiles. The tiles were arranged to be easily read by anyone who passes through the building. Lisa is thankful for the clear messages on each tile like “Suds up for 20 seconds” and “Keep your refrigerator at 40 °F or below.”

Lisa went a step further and printed off recipes with food safety steps and left them on the table. She worked hard to emphasize the importance of food safety during the holiday season, and it was well received by her peers and community. She was pleasantly surprised to see over 50 recipes had been taken from the table by the diverse population that walks through the building.

Years of Community Engagement at the Table

This isn’t the first year Lisa has created a table display. A couple years ago, she increased community engagement by holding a drawing for those who stopped at the table. Over 75 people entered, and the winner received a fridge thermometer to ensure their fridge was at a food-safe temperature. The county health department sanitarian workers who approved the display said that it was “wonderful.”

Lisa feels that with the number of those who have responded each year, she is getting her message across and doing her part in spreading awareness to her community. She appreciates that the resources from the Partnership for Food Safety Education are diverse and can be easily tweaked to be used throughout the entire year.

Lisa Treiber is an Extension Agent at Michigan State University. She can be reached at treiber@msu.edu.

You can make sure families have the safe food handling information that they need to reduce their risk of food poisoning with a personal contribution today. Click here to make a gift.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: BAC Fighter, Fight BAC, Food handling, food poisoning, food safety, Food safety resources, Food safety teacher, foodborne illness, prevent foodborne illness, recipes

PFSE Team

Britanny Saunier
Executive Director
bsaunier@fightbac.org
Connect: LinkedIn

As executive director, Britanny focuses on leveraging the Partnership’s historical leadership in cross-sector collaboration and ensuring organizational effectiveness to realize its mission to develop and promote effective education programs to reduce foodborne illness risk for consumers.

Her passion for preventing foodborne illness brought her to PFSE as an intern in 2011. Britanny served previously as the PFSE director of development, successfully increasing program service revenue and bringing diversification to the Partner network. She facilitated program engagement with consumer and academic food safety experts, and supported PFSE programs, including the national Consumer Food Safety Education Conference.

Britanny earned a master’s degree in public administration with a health policy focus from the School of Public Affairs at the American University in Washington, D.C. Bringing together the public and private sectors to collaboratively influence positive health outcomes is what sparks her joy. When she’s not spreading the message of safe food handling, you can find her happily outside hiking, gardening or hanging out with her cat, Thatcher.

Shawnte Loeri
Communications Associate
sloeri@fightbac.org
Connect: LinkedIn

Shawnte serves as Communications Associate for the Partnership for Food Safety Education. For the Partnership, she develops and edits copy for the website, e-newsletters and social media as well as designs and edits food safety educational materials. Shawnte is experienced in public relations and marketing, and has a reputation for developing and executing successful communications campaigns in support of organization goals. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications and master’s degree in Strategic Public Relations/Non-profit Management. In her free time, Shawnte enjoys participating in volunteer ministry work with her husband Adolfo.

Katie Weston

Katie Weston
Program Manager
kweston@fightbac.org
Connect: LinkedIn

As Program Manager for the Partnership for Food Safety Education, Katie leads the development of programs and engagement strategies for the health and food safety educator community. Katie has a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and more than 10 years of experience working with non-profit organizations. One of her greatest passions in life is strengthening and growing communities. She enjoys teaching ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) in her spare time, and she loves baking cupcakes and hanging out with her husband Kevin and sons Will and Sam.

Stephanie Darilus
Development Manager
sdarilus@fightbac.org
Connect: LinkedIn

Stephanie serves as Development Manager for the Partnership for Food Safety Education. In this role, she executes and evaluates the Partnership’s annual fundraising plan and stewardship activities. Stephanie has worked for non-profit organizations for more than 9 years. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science at the University of Florida as well as a master’s degree in Public Administration at Barry University. Stephanie loves to learn about different cultures and to connect with others. In her free time, she enjoys reading and traveling.

Melanie Safi
Marketing Consultant
msafi@fightbac.org
Connect: LinkedIn

Melanie Safi first joined PFSE as a Communications and Marketing Intern, focusing on social media messages development, media relations and blog posts. She now serves as a Marketing Consultant to plan, manage and execute programs related to securing registrations for the 2023 Consumer Food Safety Education Conference and raising awareness of PFSE resources. Melanie is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Health & Nutrition Sciences with a concentration in Foods and Nutrition at Brooklyn College, City University of New York (CUNY). She enjoys film photography, cooking and traveling in her free time.

Ventura County Environmental Health Greets Residents with Food Safety Every September

November 28, 2018

Every year in September the Ventura County (CA) Environmental Health Division sets up a food safety display in the lobby of the County Government Center Building. The lobby is often bustling with county residents.

This year the display featured the English and Spanish versions of the two-minute “Story of Your Dinner” video.

Residents could also pick up pamphlets from the department along with handouts from the Partnership for Food Safety Education, including the Food Safety Tips flyer and activity sheets for school-aged children.  The Four Core Practices – Clean, Separate, Cool, Chill – are an important part of the display every year.

“The Ventura County Environmental Health Division appreciates partnering with PFSE in the education of our county residents,” said Susan Seiler.

The goals of this annual display are public outreach and education about the importance of food safety and following the Four Core Practices at home and at work.

Susan Seiler is an environmental health specialist with the Ventura County Environmental Health Division. She can be reached at (805) 648-9245 or susan.seiler@ventura.org.

 

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: food safety, Food safety education, food safety month, Story of Your Dinner

Cut Food Waste and Maintain Food Safety at Home

January 17, 2018

(This blog post was developed from a Knowledge Exchange event sponsored by the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education on Jan. 16, 2018. Access a recording of the 30-minute event.)

Howard Seltzer, FDA National Food Safety Education Advisor

Reducing the risk of foodborne illness for consumers is the primary focus of the Partnership for Food Safety Education. One in six Americans get a foodborne illness each year. In our work as food safety educators we can support consumers with actions they can take to reduce cross-contamination and to handle food in a way that helps them manage risk of germs like salmonella, campylobacter, E-coli and listeria monocytogenes.

Food waste is food that is discarded or lost uneaten. Sometimes in food safety education we encourage food to be tossed uneaten if it can pose a health risk to a consumer. Food waste is a huge challenge to our natural resources, our environment, and our pocketbooks.

Howard Seltzer, a National Food Safety Education Advisor at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has been a terrific supporter of the Partnership and a true colleague in food safety education. Howard recently shared information with the BAC Fighter community on food waste and food safety.

Q: What is the connection between food waste and food safety?

Seltzer:
Food waste by consumers can result from fears about food safety. Some of these fears relate to misunderstandings about what food product dating actually means. Also, consumers can be uncertain about how to store perishable foods.

Q: What are the basics of understanding food product dating?

Seltzer:
Except for infant formula, dates on food products are not required by any Federal law or regulation, although some states do have requirements for them. Most of the food dates consumers see are on perishable foods. These are foods likely to quickly spoil, decay or become unsafe to eat if not kept refrigerated at 40° F or below or frozen at 0° F or below. Perishables include meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, eggs, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Producers of perishable food use dates to help ensure that consumers buy or use them while the products are at what the producers consider their best quality.

  • Sell by date indicates that a product should not be sold after that date if the buyer is to have it at its best quality.
  • Use by date or Best by date is the maker’s estimate of how long a product will keep at its best quality.

These are quality dates only, not safety dates. If stored properly, a food product should be safe, wholesome and of good quality after its Use by or Best by date.

Q: What are tools that BAC Fighters can use in educating consumers about storing and handing perishable foods?

Seltzer:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cornell University and the Food Marketing Institute cooperatively developed an app called “The FoodKeeper”. This app tells you how best to store perishables and how long they will keep safely. “The FoodKeeper” app is a complete guide to how long virtually every food available in the United States will keep its quality and flavor in the pantry, in the refrigerator, and in the freezer. You can download the FoodKeeper as a mobile app on your Android or Apple devices. You also can access it at FoodSafety.gov.

Q: What are some practical grocery shopping and eating tips that can help consumers manage their food at home?

Seltzer: First of all, don’t buy more perishable food than you can reasonably consume before it reaches its maximum storage time. For example, prepackaged luncheon meats will keep two weeks when stored in the refrigerator or three to five days if refrigerated after opening. Plan your meals and use shopping lists. Think about what you are buying and when it will be eaten or used. Before you shop, check your fridge and pantry to avoid buying an item that you already have.

Also, avoid impulse and bulk purchases, especially fresh produce and dairy that have limited shelf life. Promotions encouraging purchase of unusual or bulk products often result in consumers buying foods outside their typical needs or family preferences. These foods may end up in the trash.
Lastly, when eating out, become a more mindful eater. If you’re not terribly hungry, request smaller portions. Bring your leftovers home and refrigerate or freeze them within two hours.

Q: Potential for waste of these foods is high for perishable foods. What are the most important tips around storing perishables?

Seltzer: Here are a few important tips on storing of perishable foods so that you can avoid food waste. Make sure the temperature of your refrigerator is at or below 40° F. This will ensure perishables are stored safely. Next, avoid “over packing” your fridge. Cold air must circulate around refrigerated foods to keep them properly chilled. Wipe up spills in your refrigerator immediately. This action will reduce the risk of cross contamination where bacteria from one food get spread to other foods in your refrigerator. Finally, check your fridge often to keep track of what you have and what needs to be reheated and eaten or put in the freezer for later use. Leftovers should be used within 3-4 days. You can avoid wasting food by planning to eat these leftovers within the 3-4 days.

Q: What’s the difference between spoilage bacteria and the bacteria that can cause a foodborne illness?

Seltzer: Most people would not choose to eat spoiled food. However, if they did, they probably would not get sick. Spoilage bacteria can cause fruits and vegetables to get mushy or slimy, or meat to develop a bad odor, but they do not generally make you sick. Pathogenic bacteria cause illness. They grow rapidly in the Danger Zone-the temperatures between 40 °F (4.4 °C) and 140 °F (60 °C) and do not generally affect the taste, smell, or appearance of food. Food that is left too long at unsafe temperatures could be dangerous to eat, but smell and look just fine.

Check out these quality resources on reducing food waste while maintaining food safety at home:

Knowledge Exchange recording

FoodSafety.gov

FDA Article on Food Waste and Food Safety

Refrigerator & Freezer Storage Chart (PDF)

FDA Food Waste Fact Sheet (PDF)

“Home Canning and Botulism” Article

FoodKeeper app: Android Devices | Apple Devices

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: BAC Fighter, Fight BAC, Food handling, food safety, Food safety education, Food safety resources, food waste, foodborne illness, Home food safety

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 29
  • Next Page »

Copyright © 2023 · Partnership for Food Safety Education

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Linkedin Instagram Youtube Youtube Envelope
Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | Disclaimer