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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 Information
Summer 1996
To help cut the rate of summer foodborne illnesses, a team of federal, state and local officials are joining in a food safety education pilot project in New York state this summer.
They have one primary message: Cook hamburgers until they are brown, with no pink in the juices. A key purpose of the campaign is preventing illness caused by E. coli O157:H7, frequently attributed to undercooked ground beef.
Media materials include press kits, radio and television interviews, video news releases and radio and print public service announcements. Grassroots tools include logos, newsletter articles and consumer handouts in English and Spanish.
According to Marjorie Davidson, director of food safety education for FSIS, "we'll use the results to develop prototype materials other communities can use in developing their own 'hamburger' campaigns. The 'thorough cooking' message is especially important for young children and the elderly because they face increased risks of developing foodborne illness from E. coli O157:H7."
The package of prototype materials is not yet available for distribution, but check this newsletter's inserts for a reproducible copy of the consumer education flyers to be used in the campaign.
FSIS's Food Safety Education office is coordinating the campaign. Cooperators include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the New York State Departments of Health and Agriculture and Markets, Cornell Cooperative Extension and the New York City Health Department.
How many people become sick every year from foodborne illness? What factors increase risks?
Until now, the picture has not been clear. Estimates of foodborne illness vary widely--from 6 million to 33 million annually.
In the coming years, we'll be getting some better answers through a new foodborne illness surveillance system established at five sentinel sites located in health departments throughout the country. The project is a cooperative effort launched a year ago by FSIS, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC).
The surveillance system has already identified two foodborne illness outbreaks and also confirmed that Campylobacter is the most frequently laboratory-isolated bacterium from persons with diarrhea in the sentinel site areas.
For more information call FSIS Epidemiology and Emergency Response Staff, (202) 205-0293.
This past Spring, USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline logged more than 400 calls from consumers anxious about Great Britain's recent BSE crisis (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or "mad cow disease.") Calls were generated by the considerable press devoted to he theoretical link between BSE and a similar human disease (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease). To date, U.S. cattle are free from all signs of BSE.
USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline:
The hotline, part of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, provides accurate, up-to-date information to callers on safe food handling and the prevention of foodborne illness. Home economists, registered dietitians, and food technologists staff this public health service.
One of the trends over the 10 years of the Meat and Poultry Hotline's existence is an increasing awareness among consumers of the specific pathogens responsible for foodborne illness. Words that were foreign to everyday language ten years ago--like Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7--are now part of many peoples' vocabularies.
But there's a paradox at play here. While many callers have grasped the scientific names of pathogens, basic misunderstandings about food safety continue to exist.
For food safety educators, understanding consumers' food safety misconceptions may be critical to helping people handle food safely--and teaching that there's more to food safety I.Q. than knowing the names of the "bad bugs."
What are these common fallacies and how do we deal with them here on the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline? Take a look:
Consumers mistakenly tend to associate specific pathogens only with specific foods: E. coli and ground beef, Salmonella and chicken, Trichinella spiralis and pork. Educators are challenged to help consumers understand that ANY food can be a vehicle for a VARIETY of bacteria. Consumers need to know safe food handling practices are always important--even when they think a particular bacteria is "no longer a problem."
For example, when people hear that trichinosis from pork has become infrequent, some assume it's okay to serve pork rare. Our hotline specialists explain that cooking to a safe internal temperature is necessary to destroy ANY pathogens that might be present, from trichinae to salmonellae to Toxoplasma gondii.
It's also useful for consumers to know that some illnesses associated with specific foodborne pathogens CAN be transmitted person to person--not through food. And the consequences can be serious. One of the four children that died as a result of the 1993 E. coli outbreak in the Pacific Northwest never ate a contaminated hamburger. The child contracted E. coli from another child at his day care center.
How does this happen? Through "fecal/oral" contamination. For instance, bacteria from feces can be spread if hands aren't thoroughly washed after using the bathroom. To prevent this, careful handwashing, safe-diaper changing and good personal hygiene are essential.
It's human nature to want "quick fix" solutions to problems. When consumers apply this approach to food safety, they can put themselves at risk for foodborne disease. Egg safety calls to the Meat and Poultry Hotline illustrate this point.
Although health authorities for the past decade have cautioned against consumption of raw or lightly-cooked eggs, our callers frequently ask if the government has "fixed" the problem of Salmonella enteritidis. Callers reluctant to give up that favorite Key Lime pie recipe or homemade mayonnaise resist the idea there is any risk involved. But the basics of food safety remain true. It's risky to eat any undercooked meat, poultry, fish or EGG.
"I've cooked the food and killed all the bacteria." Why, consumers will ask, isn't it safe to leave the cooked turkey on the counter until the evening meal? What's wrong with cooling the large pot of soup on the back porch? Why can't I kill the bacteria in mishandled food by cooking thoroughly or reheating?
Hotline specialists respond by explaining to consumers that thorough cooking destroys bacteria that cause illness.
However, other factors can come into play to compromise the safety of cooked foods. For instance, if cooked food is mishandled--left at room temperature too long--dangerous toxins can form. Some toxins are extremely heat resistant--and may not be destroyed no matter how much food is re-heated. Cooked foods can also be recontaminated by exposure to bacteria through lack of food-handler hygiene.
Many consumers call with questions about long-term storage. How long can they keep the food, they ask, before it spoils?
There are actually two misunderstandings at work here. One, that "spoiled" food causes foodborne disease. The second, that long-term storage compromises food safety.
Many consumers believe that spoiled food causes foodborne disease. As our specialists explain, it's not so. The organisms that cause a food to spoil--and possibly look, smell and taste bad--aren't the same organisms that cause foodborne disease. Conversely, the dangerous bacteria that CAN make you sick might be in food that looks "unspoiled." Any food, fresh or frozen, can contain dangerous bacteria if it has been mishandled.
The second consumer misunderstanding is that long-term storage can compromise food safety. In fact, the multiplication of most disease-causing organisms is slowed by refrigerator temperatures and stopped by freezing. The real issue with long-term storage is food quality, not food safety. Food that is stored longer than suggested guidelines may decline in quality. These changes can occur gradually and are influenced by temperature and humidity. Hotline staff remind callers to look at storage charts and product dates as guidelines, not absolutes.
For more information about the Meat and Poultry Hotline, contact Bessie Berry, Director, at (202) 720-5604.
"Food Safety on the Web," a national satellite videoconference to promote awareness and use of USDA Food Safety Education Databases will be aired live from Kansas State University September 20, 1996 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. central time.
The program will focus on the content of three databases:
The videoconference, a joint project of Kansas, Wisconsin and Michigan Cooperative Extension, will be of interest to educators in extension, public health, classrooms, food service and elsewhere who are interested in using food safety educational curricula and resources.
The program will show types of resources catalogued in the databases and how to use these in educational settings. It will also highlight a number of successful food safety educational programs referenced in the databases.
The program can be downlinked free of charge. For more information, contact Jane Freyenberger, Kansas State University, phone (913) 532-1674 or e-mail: freyen@humec.ksu,edu. Or check the web page at: http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/dep/fnut/foodweb.htm.
While all three databases provide educators with access to a variety of food safety education resources, each has distinct features.
The National Food Safety Database, at the University of Florida, contains more than 1,300 full-text documents and serves a diverse audience including academics, professional food handlers and consumers. Started in October 1995, the NFSD database is a cooperative effort involving 22 academic, government and private organizations.
Browsing through the database you will find entries such as the 1995 FDA Food Code; the "1994 Revised USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning;" the University of Georgia's "Easy to Preserve" freezing and drying factsheets; and 3 food safety slideshows containing over 150 color slides.
The Word Wide Web address: http://www.agen.ufl.edu/~foodsaf/foodsaf.html.
The Extension Food Safety Education Database, at Michigan State University, provides educators with a computer-based information management tool for locating food safety curricula and resources materials for youth and adults.
The database catalogues more than 100 materials that address a wide range of food-related issues including--microbiological concerns, food irradiation, pesticides, environmental concerns, and biotechnology. Users access information in the database by entering key search words--for example by the target audience (youth) or the type of material (video).
The World Wide Web address: http://www.msue.msu.edu/msue/.
This will take you to the Extension Home Page. Choose MSUE IMP Information system. Choose Extension Food Safety Education and follow the directions on the screen.
The Foodborne Illness Educational Materials Database, was described in the January 1996 issue of the Food Safety Educator, also provides listings of foodborne illness training materials.
The database lists over 220 videos, posters, books, brochures and curricula. It can be accessed on the Internet by going to the Food and Nutrition Information Center's web site: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic or go to a public gopher site and make the following selections from the menus: Gopher Servers in the USA; Maryland; Food and Nutrition Information Center, USDA.
Starting this summer, World Wide Web surfers will be able to find FSIS food safety information--including the Food Safety Educator--on the Internet. The FSIS Home Page will include a Consumer Information and Education site offering tips on safe food handling as well as consumer education feature stories and publications.
The complete FSIS Home Page will also feature additional sites providing information on topics such as agency inspection initiatives, news releases, and speeches.
We'll keep you informed about our Home Page progress in future issues. We'll also be sharing news about other food safety resources on the Internet. If you've found some good ones, let us know. We'll pass it along.
The FSIS Home Page can be accessed at: http://www.usda.gov/fsis.
In an effort to increase awareness, the Industry Council on Food Safety is gearing up for the second year to designate September as National Food Safety Education Month.
The Council, organized by The Educational Foundation of the National Restaurant Association, is distributing a consumer publication, "Chef CookSmart's Guide to Safe Food Preparation and Handling." For a copy, call toll-free 1/800-CookSmart. In addition, the Council is encouraging food service operators to reach out to consumers by distributing "Chef CookSmart's Tips." For more information on the Industry Council and activities for National Food Safety Education Month, call 1/800-456-0111.
As the saying goes, "To solve the problem, you have to SEE the problem." In some ways, that phrase summarizes the conclusions of a recently released report of a 1995 conference, Tracking Foodborne Pathogens From Farm to Table: Data Needs to Evaluate Control Options, (MP-1532).
Conference participants, including scientists, food safety policymakers and economists, generally agreed that while some good data exist on foodborne pathogens, a lot remains to be known.
The 1995 conference was co-sponsored by USDA's Economic Research Service, other USDA and government agencies and industry and academic organizations, including the Food Safety Consortium. While conference experts noted deep gaps in data bases for foodborne disease, the report also points to "exciting opportunities to address key data gaps." Among these initiatives are efforts to collect microbial baseline data through a new sentinel county surveillance system for diarrheal diseases.
Copies of the conference report are available for $18 and can by ordered by calling 1-800-999-6779.
New in 1996 from FDA: Food Safety: An Educational Video for Institutional Food Service Workers. The ten-minute video package is available for only $12.95 and targets information to food service staff in nursing homes, day care facilities and hospitals.
The video package includes information from the 1995 Food Code and includes information about how to obtain other food safety resources, including those on the World Wide Web.
To order the package, contact: Duplication Department of Interface Video Systems, 202/861-0500.
Most people rely on the news media for information about food safety and nutrition. Given their central role, what kind of nutrition and food safety information are the media delivering?
This is the topic of a quantitative and qualitative study, titled, "Food for Thought," recently completed for the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation. The study's major findings show that the media seldom provide the context needed to understand overall nutrition recommendations in news reports about individual foods. In addition, reports on emerging diet and health science often lacked details that would allow consumers to judge a study's relevance to their own diets. The study also showed that local media delivered more food safety and nutrition information than national outlets--although they were less likely to present and emphasize positive messages.
The executive summary is available at no cost via the IFIC Foundation On-Line at http://ificinfo.health.org. The full 65 page report can be ordered for $24.95 plus $2.50 postage and handling. Contact:
International Food Information Council Foundation
1100 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 430
Washington, D.C. 20036
202/296-6540
USDA's Food Safety Education Office is the consumer education division of FSIS. Staff educators, researchers, science writers, design and marketing experts work with scientists and officials in government, academe, and private industry to produce educational materials. FSE has 15 years of experience showing the positive impact of these print, video, and teleconference efforts.
We encourage you to FAX us your comments on topics you find useful or new directions we might explore. Fax your views to: Editor, FSE.
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