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Food Safety and Inspection
Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C. 20250-3700 |
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Food Safety and Inspection
Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C. 20250-3700 |
Consumer Education and Information
Volume 5, No. 2, 2000
Time To Partner! A new grassroots community workbook soon to be published by the Fight BAC!™ campaign summarizes it all up front: "You can't do it alone!" The workbook, due out this fall, is a how-to manual on partnerships and grassroots food safety educational campaigns. It's called "Using Partnerships to Fight BAC!™ A Workbook for Local Food Safety Educators." "Educators at the local level are strapped for time, money and staff--and their to-do list just keeps growing. This workbook is a way to help them link up with others in their communities. There's power in partnerships," says Susan Conley, director of the food safety education staff for the Food Safety and Inspection Service. Conley knows about the power of partnerships from personal experience. As an education coordinator with the Fight BAC!™ campaign in 1999, she pilot-tested two grassroots campaigns in San Diego, Ca., and Annapolis, Md. The new workbook is the result of those pilot projects as well as partnering activities of other BAC! fighters throughout the country. While the idea of partnerships may seem unsettling to people used to operating on their own, there is no doubt that there is more impact when a team is at work. A look at the daily newspaper shows that the benefit of partnerships is an idea emerging as a significant force among industries, organizations and charity groups as they join forces, accomplishing more together than they could alone. The workbook walks educators through the partnering process, including:
"The Fight BAC!™ campaign has done an incredible job producing educational tools--brochures, graphics, curriculums. The grassroots handbook takes the campaign one step further. It gives people the hands-on advice they need to get a campaign up and running in their community.
"Grassroots campaigns and partnering not only help people learn about food safety, they reinforce the very idea of community. It gives people a chance to give something back--to be a part of their community," Conley noted. "It's amazing how many people 'step up' when you give them a chance."
Stay tuned for a video teleconference coming this September
with "how-to-use" information on the work-book. Orders
for the workbook can be faxed to: 202/720- 9062; or emailed to: fsis.outreach@usda.gov
or write: USDA/ FSIS, Food Safety Education Staff, Room 2942
South Bldg., 14th and Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC
20250. 
Food Safety for Volunteer Food
Handlers"How did this happen? This was going to be so easy. Just a little fund-raising dinner for the school... I thought maybe 50 people max! Now I'm looking at fixing turkey, potatoes and greens for 150!"
Do you read this and think: been there, done that?
Lots of us have. This is a country of volunteers and fund-raising dinners as well as informal get-togethers like block parties.
For a number of reasons, volunteer food handlers can be in a tough spot when it comes to handling food safely. According to Robyn Sadagursky of the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline, "people who are great cooks at home, don't necessarily know how to safely fix large quantities of food.
"There are a lot of things that are different when you're cooking for large groups, including the complexities of safely transporting food and serving.
"And, unlike other types of foodservice--like restaurants and grocery stores--these types of dinners aren't generally supervised by local public health departments," Sadagursky said.
To help keep fund-raising and charity dinners running safely, Sadagursky has authored a new publication called "Cooking for Groups: A Volunteer's Guide to Food Safety."
According to Sadagursky, some of the key food safety tips for groups detailed in the new publication include:
The publication also includes a chart of safe internal cooking temperatures as well as a cold-storage chart and shelf-stable storage chart.
Copies of the publication are available by calling the USDA
Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-800-535-4555. Or you can download
from the web: www.fsis.usda.gov and click on
"Publications."
A Serious Foodborne Illness Can
Be PreventedToxoplasmosis is an illness which can be foodborne and present serious health problems for an unborn child if a pregnant woman becomes infected.
The illness is caused by a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. People can contract the parasite by eating meat that is infected or by contamination of food with soil that contains the parasite.
Toxoplasmosis was highlighted in the March 31,2000, issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Web access: www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr4902a5.htm)
The article summarizes the recommendations of a national workshop convened on the topic in September 1998 by CDC.
A primary conclusion: "Many cases of congenital toxoplasmosis can be prevented."
When toxoplasmosis is transmitted from a pregnant woman to her unborn child it can cause severe illness, including mental retardation, blindness and seizures.
CDC estimates that the illness causes between 400 and 4,000 cases a year and may be the third leading cause of death due to foodborne illness.
As a result of the group's recommendations, CDC is currently working to improve estimates of the numbers of cases and provide education for pregnant women and health care providers.
Among CDC's prevention tips for consumers:
Check the MMWR article for additional prevention advice.
Meat and Poultry Recalls | In a mock recall, some 2.6 million pounds of finished product were dispersed to 87 distributors and 40 processors in 34 states and 4 countries. Eighty percent of the 1-day's production was distributed within 2 days-- the entire production within a week. |
Food recalls are a challenge: a challenge in terms of logistics and a challenge in terms of communicating public health concerns.
To illustrate how daunting the logistics can be, one U. S. company recently provided an example of what happened to 1 day's production in a commercial beef slaughter and fabrication facility.
In a mock recall, some 2.6 million pounds of finished product were dispersed to 87 distributors and 40 processors in 34 states and 4 countries. Eighty percent of the 1 day's production was distributed within 2 days-- the entire production within a week.
To help consumers and public health educators better understand how meat and poultry recalls work and the public health implications of recalls, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Food Safety Education Staff recently published a Focus on Recalls (available through the web at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/pubs/recallfocus.htm).
Among other things, the Focus on Recalls explains:
All recalls are voluntary. They may be initiated by the manufacturer or distributor--or at the request of FSIS.
Unsafe or improperly labeled meat and poultry can come to the attention of FSIS in many different ways, including pathogen testing programs initiated by FSIS, food producers, and states-- as well as through foodborne illness outbreaks.
There are three separate classes of recalls.
Class I involves a health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that eating the food will cause health problems or death.
An example would be the detection of Listeria monocytogenes in a ready-to-eat food.
Class II involves a potential health situation where there is a remote probability of adverse health consequences from eating the food. An example would be the presence of dry milk, a Class II allergen, as an ingredient in sausage without mention of the dry milk on the label.
Class III involves a situation when eating the food will not cause adverse health consequences.
An example would be an improperly labeled processed meat product in which added water is not listed on the label as required by federal regulations.
For every recall, FSIS notifies the public in two ways-- through a press release and a Recall Notification Report (RNR). Both are posted on the FSIS Recall Information Center web site: www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/recalls/rec_intr.htm
The Recall Notification Report is designed to provide the public and public health officials with available detailed information about meat and poultry recalls.
Information in the Retail Notification Report includes:
| FSIS Recall Information Center: www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/recalls/rec_intr.htm |
A Wealth of Information: CDC's
New Food Safety Web SiteDid you know that more than 250 different types of foodborne diseases have been described?
Or, that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there are 38 cases of salmonellosis for every case that's actually diagnosed and reported?
Or how about this fact:
A bottle-fed infant is at higher risk for severe infections with Salmonella or other bacteria that can grow in a bottle of warm formula if it is left at room temperature for many hours.
These are just a few of the interesting facts culled from the Frequently Asked Questions page on the new CDC web site: www.cdc.gov/foodsafety .
Click on this web page and you'll find links to all kinds of information. And, it's clearly presented and written in language that everyone can understand.
You'll find information on:
The Hot Topics link takes you to subjects like:
Click on Educational Resources and you go to a site with links to publications as well as web sites including:
Take some time-- make some time-- to check out this valuable resource.
The link to the Frequently Asked Questions provides 15 pages of clearly written information explaining the basics as well as the complex.
Subjects include:
Here is just a sampling of some questions and answers:
What are the most common foodborne diseases?
The most commonly recognized foodborne infections are those caused by the bacteria Campylobacter, Salmonella, and E. coli O157: H7, and by a group of viruses called calicivirus, also known as the Norwalk and Norwalk-like viruses.
Campylobacter is a bacterial pathogen that causes fever, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps. It is the most commonly identified bacterial cause of diarrheal illness in the world. These bacteria live in the intestines of healthy birds, and most raw poultry meat has Campylobacter on it. Eating undercooked chicken, or other food that has been contaminated with juices dripping from raw chicken is the most frequent source of this infection.
Salmonella is also a bacterium that is widespread in the intestines of birds, reptiles and mammals. It can spread to humans via a variety of different foods of animal origin. The illness it causes, salmonellosis, typically includes fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. In persons with poor underlying health or weakened immune systems, it can invade the bloodstream and cause life-threatening infections.
E. coli O157: H7 is a bacterial pathogen that has a reservoir in cattle and other similar animals. Human illness typically follows consumption of food or water that has been contaminated with microscopic amounts of cow feces. The illness it causes is often a severe and bloody diarrhea and painful abdominal cramps, without much fever.
In 3% to 5% of cases, a complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) can occur several weeks after the initial symptoms. This severe complication includes temporary anemia, profuse bleeding, and kidney failure.
Calicivirus, or Norwalk-like virus, is an extremely common cause of foodborne illness, though it is rarely diagnosed, because the laboratory test is not widely available. It causes an acute gastrointestinal illness, usually with more vomiting than diarrhea, that resolves within 2 days.
Unlike many foodborne pathogens that have animal reservoirs, it is believed that Norwalk-like viruses spread primarily from one infected person to another. Infected kitchen workers can contaminate a salad or sandwich as they prepare it, if they have the virus on their hands. Infected fishermen have contaminated oysters as they harvested them.
Are the types of foodborne disease changing?
The spectrum of foodborne disease is constantly changing. A century ago, typhoid fever, tuberculosis and cholera were common foodborne diseases.
Improvements in food safety, such as pasteurization of milk, safe canning, and disinfection of water supplies, have conquered those diseases. Today other foodborne infections have taken their place, including some that have only recently been discovered....
In the last 15 years, several important diseases of unknown cause have turned out to be complications of foodborne infection. For example, we now know that the Guillain-Barré syndrome can be caused by Campylobacter infection, and that the most common cause of acute kidney failure in children, hemolytic uremic syndrome, is caused by infection with E. coli O157: H7 and related bacteria.
What are some unsolved problems in foodborne disease?
In the future, other disease whose origins are currently unknown may turn out to be related to foodborne infections.
As new foodborne problems emerge, many questions need to be answered before the problem can be successfully controlled. It takes careful scientific observation and research to answer these questions.
Some pressing unanswered questions include:
Thermy™ Is
Launched! A consumer education campaign designed to encourage the use of food thermometers was launched in May by Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman.
The Thermy™ character and consumer education materials were developed by the Food Safety and Inspection Service. The campaign encourages consumers to use a food thermometer to make sure that foods like meat, poultry and egg dishes are cooked to a safe internal temperature.
Throughout the summer months, grocery stores are planning on distributing hundreds of thousands of copies of Thermy™ brochures as well as including Thermy™ graphics on grocery bags, recipe cards and in-store displays.
To check out the latest on the campaign, go to: www.fsis.usda.gov/thermy
See You in September-- National
Food Safety Education Month Consumer educators and restaurant and foodservice professionals will be working again this year to teach food safety for National Food Safety Education Month SM in September. The theme this year: "Be Smart Keep Foods Apart--Don't Cross-contaminate!"
Cross-contamination is the transfer of harmful bacteria from one food to another if foods, cutting boards , utensils, etc., are not handled properly. This is especially true when handling raw meat, poultry, and seafood-- but also applies to un-washed fresh produce.
"Separate," along with "Cook," "Clean," and "Chill," are the four food safety messages promoted by the Fight BAC!™ campaign. National Food Safety Education Month SM was created 6 years ago by the International Food Safety Council, a coalition of restaurant and foodservice professionals.
As in past years, the Food Safety and Inspection Service and Food and Drug Administration are teaming up to produce a "Consumer Education Planning Guide" that will be distributed nationwide-- and available through the web. Go to: www.FoodSafety.gov/September
The "Consumer Education Planning Guide" contains:
suggestions for celebrating National Food Safety Education Month SM
The International Food Safety Council also produces and
distributes a planning guide for restaurants and foodservice.
It's available through the web: www.foodsafetycouncil.org
Save This Date! September 26Tune in for the Food Safety Educators Video Teleconference sponsored by the Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Food and Drug Administration.
Check the FoodSafety.gov web site for transponder coordinates.
Included in the teleconference:
FSIS Is Recruiting! The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is recruiting
nation-wide for food inspectors for meat and poultry plants.
Inspection positions are both full time and intermittent. There
are also openings for veterinary medical officers. To check out
openings, go to: www.fsis.usda.gov and click on "Employment Information."
Or, contact FSIS Human Resources Division at 1-800-370-3747.
Irradiation InfoFSIS is posting on the web the agency's responses to questions from industry and other constituent groups concerning labeling, ingredient, packaging material, and procedural issues on meat irradiation.
To access this irradiation information-- as well as a new
consumer Q& A--produced by FSIS go to: www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/topics/irrmenu.htm.
Also for consumers: a new brochure from the Food and Drug
Administration providing answers to basic questions about
irradiation is now available. It is on the web. Go to: www.fda.gov/opacom/catalog/irradbro.html
FoodService Plan Review GuideThe Food and Drug Administration has published a new document to help people conducting a foodservice plan review. Whether you are a regulator a foodservice operator, it's designed to help.
To access the guide, go to: http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/previntr.html
CDC's Foodborne Disease
SurveillanceThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published results from the Foodborne Disease Surveillance from 1993 through 1997 in the March 17, 2000, issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (web site: www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4901al.htm)
This report is compiled by CDC's passive surveillance system which records outbreaks reported to CDC by public health offices throughout the country.
The report notes that it is difficult to draw substantive conclusions because their data is limited: "only a fraction of these illnesses are routinely reported to CDC because a complex chain of events must occur...."
In addition, the causes of 68 percent of outbreaks are unidentified.
However, because of the incubation periods involved, the writers note that many unidentified causes may in fact be attributed to viruses, which "are probably a much more important cause of foodborne disease outbreaks than is currently recognized.
The writers note that with improved testing and reporting mechanisms, like PulseNet, more outbreaks will be identified in the future.
PulseNet is now operating in 32 states and CDC hopes to have
it expanded to 40 states by the end of the year.
Consumer AdvisoryFor the Food and Drug Administration's guidance on the Consumer
Advisory provision of the FDA Food Code, go to: http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fc99guid.html
Antibiotics Harmful to Kids
With E. coliNew research just published in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes that antibiotic treatment of children with E. coli O157: H7 infection increases the risk of hemolytic-uremic syndrome.
The study looked at 71 children under 10 years old, all ill from E. coli. Nine of the 71 children had received antibiotics. Ten of the 71 children developed hemoytic-uremic syndrome. Five of those 10 children had been treated with antibiotics.
The article was published June 29, 2000. It's available
through the web: www.nejm.org
www. FoodSafety. gov Gateway to
Government Food Safety InformationThis gateway site keeps growing and changing. You'll now find a link to food safety publications in foreign languages-- including Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese. There are also some video materials in other languages.
According to site coordinator Ken Durham from the Food and Drug Administration, another new addition is Frequently Asked Questions.
"This will provide users with access to more than 500 topics people are frequently researching," Durham said.
Another good link to check, Durham says, is titled
"Recent Additions." While these sites aren't
necessarily new in themselves, they are new links to Food Safety.
gov
Clip and Save: Food Safety Web
Sites As evidenced by the many, many web sites already noted in this issue of The Food Safety Educator, the Internet has become the first stop in distributing information. If it's "out," it's up on the web.
Following is a list of just a few of the quick-check sites you might want to keep on hand.
Government
Food Safety Gateway Info,
www.FoodSafety.gov
U. S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA),
www.usda.gov
Under USDA:
Agricultural Research Service,
www.ars.usda.gov
Food Safety and Inspection Service,
www.fsis.usda.gov
CSREES Food Safety and Quality,
www.reeusda.gov/pas/programs/foodsafety
Center for Nutrition Policy and
Promotion,
www.usda.gov/cnpp
USDA/FDA Foodborne Illness Education
Information Center,
www.nal.usda.gov/foodborne
Food and Nutrition Service-- Nutrition
Assistance Program,
www.fns.usda.gov/fns
Food and Nutrition Service-- Team
Nutrition,
www.fns.usda.gov/tn
National Agricultural Library,
www.nal.usda.gov
Other Government
Agencies:
Food and Drug Administration
(FDA),
www.fda.gov
FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied
Nutrition,
www.cfsan.fda.gov
U. S. Department of Commerce-- Seafood
Inspection Service,
http://seafood.nmfs.gov
Environmental Protection Agency,
www.epa.gov/pesticides
Federal Trade Commission,
www.ftc.gov
Center for Disease Control and
Prevention,
www.cdc.gov
Federal Consumer Information
Center,
www.pueblo.gsa.gov
National Heart, Lung and Blood
Institute,
www.nhlbi.nih.gov
International:
World Health Organization,
www.who.it/programmes/food_safety.htm
Organizations:
American Dietetic Association,
www.eatright.org
American School Food Service
Association,
www.asfsa.org
Center for Science in the Public
Interest,
www.cspinet.org
Food Marketing Institute,
www.fmi.org
Grocery Manufacturers of America,
www.gmabrands.com
International Food Information
Council,
http://ific.org
National Consumers League,
www.nclnet.org
National Food Processors
Association,
www.safefood.org
National Restaurant Association,
www.restaurant.org
| For Links to Zillions of Other Sites, go
to: |
The Food Safety Educator is produced by the Food Safety Education Staff, Food Safety and Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
The Food Safety Educator is a free publication. To subscribe,
send us your name and mailing address.
You can email to:
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You can fax:
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or write:
USDA/FSIS
Food Safety Education Staff
Room 2942 South Bldg.
14th and Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20250
Please feel free to email comments or suggestions-- fsis.outreach@usda.gov
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD).
To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W Whitten, Building, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice or TDD). USDA is an equal employment opportunity provider and employer.
For Further Information Contact:
FSIS Food Safety Education Staff
Dianne Durant, Writer/Editor
Phone: (301) 504-9605
Fax: (304) 504-0203
E-mail: fsis.outreach@usda.gov
