| Partnership for Food Safety Education

Bulk Food Buying During Coronavirus

April 8, 2020

As of this writing, you — along with 90 percent of your fellow Americans — are under stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic. The orders are in place to minimize physical contact between people which is how the virus spreads.

Under these stay-at-home orders, procuring food remains an essential activity. For many people, food delivery is an attractive option. For others, particularly those on a tight budget, and those who may view grocery shopping as one way to experience some sense of normalcy, their local food retailer is their source for food and other basics for isolating at home.

Grocery Store Visits: Planning for Perishables

Buying food in bulk helps you limit the number of trips you need to make to the store, possibly reducing exposure to others who potentially could be carrying the coronavirus.

Fight BAC! is here to help you out with a few essential tips on buying and storing bulk perishables, and how managing for food safety at home can keep you healthy and minimize food waste.

As you consider your food budget and how to efficiently use the food you have at home, we have some great resource suggestions:

The USDA SNAP-ED program on meal planning and food budgeting.
My Plate is also a good source for tips on getting the most out of the food dollars you’re spending, plan meals for balanced nutrition, and reduce food waste.

Shopping for Perishables

Now, let’s get shopping for those perishables. Make a list of what you are planning to buy – and link it to specific meals or healthy snacks you’ve planned.

Check your refrigerator and freezer before your grocery trip:

Do you really need more meat, poultry, fish and eggs?
Do you have items in the freezer that could be safely thawed and worked into a meal?

Before you go to the store is a great time to review what you have, and plan to buy items that allow you to put together a meal from the foods you have in the freezer.

BYOB: Bring Your Own Bags to the Grocery Store

On your trips, plan to use your own bags – preferably quality canvas totes that have just been freshly laundered. During the coronavirus outbreak some stores are not allowing customers to bring their own reusable totes. You may want to check with your retailer before you go.

Now is a great time to get into the habit of laundering your totes on a regular basis – and not storing them in your trunk or outdoors. Invest in sturdy totes that hold up well to laundering.

Buying Bulk Fruit: How Long Will It Last?

Retailers are reporting significantly increased sales of 5-pound bags of apples, oranges and other fresh produce.

Be aware of how long fruits and vegetables will last.

Plan to only buy what you will be able to consume or prepare for freezing.
Apples will last 3 weeks if stored at cool temperature, and 4-6 weeks if refrigerated.
Oranges and other citrus is best if eaten within 20 days if refrigerated.

Produce safety expert Trevor Suslow’s article covers safe handling of produce with coronavirus. Remember – running tap water and clean hands are all you need to rinse your fresh fruits and vegetables.

Meat & Poultry Coronavirus Bulk-Buying Tips

Buying larger family-sized trays of beef, pork, and chicken products is a common way to stock up, save money and have important basic protein on-hand for preparing family meals.

If you buy bulk meat and poultry, and you plan to divide it up for freezing portions, keep in mind this important and often-overlooked recommendation: you want to retain the original package label. Why? Should there be a later recall of a meat or poultry product, you will then know if you have that product in your refrigerator based on identifying marks.

Keep the Label

One suggestion is to cut the labeling off the large package, and put it, along with your store receipt if possible, in a plastic sandwich bag, marking on the bag the date of purchase. Mark each of the portions you plan to freeze with an identifier so you will know it was part of the bulk tray you purchased.

When there is a recall of a meat or poultry product, you’ll be able to identify the product in your freezer if you’ve kept this label information.

The retailer imprint area should include the product name, brand name (not all meat and poultry is under a brand name), establishment number, product weight/size, lot code and date code.

Keep the label information in a safe place where you will be able to check it in the event of a recall involving products you commonly buy.

Wrapping Meat & Poultry Properly

Wrap separate pieces of meat or poultry in foil or plastic bags, then place all wrapped or bagged portions into a larger freezer bag or foil wrap. Press all air out of the bag or foil package and label the package with the identifying information and date you froze.

Even though these products can be kept for about a year in the freezer, for quality and flavor remember to plan meals that will use these products within about four months.

Fresh meat and poultry should not be kept in the refrigerator very long before you use it or freeze it. For poultry just 1-2 days and for cuts of meat just 3-5 days maximum. For safety and quality, make sure your refrigerator is at 40 F or below. Your refrigerator temperature is important to reducing risk of food poisoning.

What About Deli Meats? How Long Can I Store Them?

Once you open a package of deli meat, you have only 3-5 days to consume it. Unopened deli meats keep at proper refrigeration for two weeks.

For your many other perishables, including eggs, dairy and other products, the USDA-Food Marketing Institute Food Keeper can help you navigate how long these foods can be kept for safety and quality. The Food Keeper is available as a mobile app, too.

Everyone has a role in food safety! And consider this: It is never a good time to have to visit your doctor because you or your loved one has a foodborne illness. But now is an especially bad time to require medical attention.

Limit your exposure by staying home, and have the entire family be up-to-speed on the Clean, Separate, Cook and Chill practices.

Shelley Feist is Executive Director of the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education.

Take a Fresh Look at Frozen Foods this Holiday Season

December 15, 2016

Dr. Donna Garren, Senior Vice President of Regulatory and Technical Affairs, Frozen Food Foundation

In honor of the holiday season, the Frozen Food Foundation invites you to take a fresh look at frozen foods and follow the four easy steps in the Story of Your Dinner consumer education campaign.

Frozen. How Fresh Stays Safe.
Freezing is nature’s pause button. Freezing simply pauses just-picked and just-baked foods, keeping them at their peak of freshness and locking in their flavor and nutrients.

Freezing, one of the oldest methods of preserving foods, can keep foods fresh for a longer period of time. Freezing is a natural way to keep foods safe by preventing microorganisms from growing and by slowing down the enzyme activity that causes food to spoil. Modern freezing techniques used by fruit and vegetable growers and makers of prepared meals capture and preserve food at the peak of its freshness and nutrient content.

When preparing the variety of options available to consumers in the frozen food aisle, remember to always read and follow the package cooking instructions to achieve the right temperature to make your foods safe and delicious.

Another important tip to remember this holiday season is if you can’t eat your leftovers quickly, freeze them, because cold temperatures slow the growth of harmful bacteria.

Frozen. How Fresh Stays Nutritious.
Did you know that frozen fruits and vegetables are as rich in nutrients and, in many cases, are packed with even higher nutrient levels than their fresh counterparts?

Two Frozen Food Foundation-commissioned studies conducted by the Universities of Georgia (UGA) and California-Davis (UC Davis) reveal that frozen fruits and vegetables are as rich in nutrients, and often more so, than fresh-stored produce.

Frozen. How Fresh Stays Accessible.
About 40 percent of the food produced in the United States each year is never eaten, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, amounting to about $162 billion lost every year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

All of this wasted food is staggering considering 17.5 million U.S. households are food insecure.

Frozen foods mean less wasted food and access to well-balanced, portion-controlled nutritious meals in every season and community. In fact, research published in the British Food Journal shows that frozen food generates 47 percent less food waste at home than non-frozen food, so families can save money while still eating healthy meals.

We’ve got your back this holiday season with safe, nutritious and easy to prepare frozen foods. Print

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Hy-Vee Shoppers “Caught” in the Act of Health

August 22, 2015

Members of the McLean County Health Department’s employee-comprised marketing committee are serious about raising awareness around public health. The committee publicly launched a summer program in their hometown of Bloomington, Illinois, focused on publicaly recognizing the individual choices people make every day that, taken together, create a positive effect on health.

The first of these “pop-up” events as they called them, was held on May 21, 2015 at the Bloomington Hy-Vee grocery store.

Lisa Slater, Public Health Communications Specialist, chairs the marketing committee and explained the event this way,

“We wanted to get out into the community and shine a light on individuals who are making good decisions everyday when it comes to their health and the health of their families.”

At the Hy-Vee pop-up, Lisa’s team surprised shoppers they saw taking positive health action — things like putting a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables in their cart, or using hand sanitizer in the store. To promote home food safety, team members gave each person they stopped a meat thermometer and the Partnership for Food Safety Education’s, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures/Safe Cooking Guidelines handout, to promote the importance of using food thermometers when cooking to reduce the risk of food poisoning.

Shoppers that were “caught” in the act of doing the right thing for their health also received an “I am Public Health” t-shirt.

Do the right thing for your health — your partners in public health are ready to support you!

Planning Tips

Invite guests, asking everyone to RSVP before the event so you know how much

Find out if your guests have special dietary requirements.
Make sure you have enough tables, chairs, glassware and dinnerware or make arrangements to borrow or purchase
Decide on the menu and collect all recipes. To avoid an overloaded oven or range top, select a few recipes that serve
well at room temperature. Calculate the cooking time and temperatures (plus cooking order) for your menu.
Prepare three shopping lists: one for food prep safety items, one for perishable food and one for non-perishables.
Check the tools and ingredients you have on-hand. Verify that dried herbs and spices are not expired.
Plan decorations that are suitable for your setting.
Check to make sure your food thermometer is in working order and calibrated.
Check your inventory for platters (one for raw meat, one for serving). Clean the platters and other serving dishes and
Hardy vegetables such as onions, carrots and potatoes can be purchased one week ahead, while, salad greens and
perishable vegetables should not be purchased until the day before.
Enlist the kids to help with baking, or have the kids make leftovers labels.
When setting the table, be sure to remember the salt and pepper shakers, butter plate and all the serving utensils.
Wash, trim and cut fresh vegetables on a clean cutting board. Wash leafy greens, spin, dry, and store by packing in
paper towels in a sealable plastic bag in the refrigerator for no longer than one day.
Set up the beverage bar with glasses, napkins and bottle/wine opener.
Make sure you have room in your refrigerator for all the food, so if you don’t have enough space, chill the beverages in
On the day of your event, prepare the cleaned vegetables for cooking – peel and chop using clean utensils and a clean
cutting board. Cover the ready-to-cook vegetables and put them in the refrigerator. Remove cold desserts from the
refrigerator to allow them to come to room temperature.
Use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of meat.
After your event, divide all leftovers into smaller portions and store in shallow containers in the refrigerator within two
hours. Let your kids use their leftover labels to mark a “use by” date on the containers.
The non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education saves lives and improves public health through research-based, actionable consumer food safety initiatives that reduce foodborne illness. Sign up to be a BAC Fighter!

Handling Ingredients

Our Holiday meal favorites are foods made from scratch! Here are guidelines for the safe handling of a few of the ingredients that go into your holiday dishes. Foodborne illness can strike anyone. But If you are preparing foods for people who are at a higher risk for illness — pregnant women, young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems — it is critical to follow the basics of Clean, Separate, Cook and Chill.

Remember — Always wash hands with warm water and soap for 20 seconds before and after handling food!

Eggs

To prevent illness from bacteria, keep eggs refrigerated. Cook eggs until yolks are firm and cook egg dishes to a safe temperature of 160 °F as measured with a food thermometer. Eggs and egg dishes, such as quiches or soufflés, may be refrigerated for serving later but should be thoroughly reheated to 165 °F before serving. Wash utensils, equipment and work surfaces with hot water and soap before and after they come in contact with eggs and egg-containing foods.

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Check that fresh cut fruits and vegetables like packaged salads and precut melons are refrigerated at the store before buying. Do not buy fresh cut items that are not refrigerated. Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables under running tap water, including those with skins and rinds that are not eaten. Packaged fruits and vegetables labeled “ready-to-eat,” “washed,” or “triple-washed,” need not be washed. Never use detergent or bleach to wash fresh fruits or vegetables. These products are not intended for consumption. Keep fresh fruits and vegetables separate from raw meat, poultry, seafood and eggs. Do not use the same cutting board without cleaning with hot water and soap before and after preparing fresh fruits and vegetables. Refrigerate all cut, peeled or cooked fresh fruits and vegetables within two hours.

Seafood

It’s always best to cook seafood thoroughly to minimize the risk of foodborne illness. However, if you choose to eat raw fish anyway, one rule of thumb is to eat fish that has been previously frozen. Some species of fish can contain parasites, and freezing will kill any parasites that may be present. But, be aware that freezing doesn’t kill all harmful microorganisms. That’s why the safest route is to cook your seafood.

An Important Note About Oysters:

Some oysters are treated for safety after they are harvested. That information may or may not be on the label. However, these oysters should still not be eaten raw by people at greatest risk for foodborne illness. The post-harvest treatment eliminates some naturally occurring pathogens, but it does not remove all pathogens that can cause illness.

The non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education saves lives and improves public health through research-based, actionable consumer food safety initiatives that reduce foodborne illness. Sign up to be a BAC Fighter atwww.fightbac.org!