How to Use This Toolkit

This toolkit is designed to help you get started with your Summer Food Safety Campaign. In this toolkit you will find the materials you can use to promote safe food handling from Memorial Day to Labor Day.   

We have organized this material to help make your outreach informative, helpful and fun. Resources include:

• Talking Points
• Social Media
• Infographics

To encourage co-branding, you may add your organization’s name to outreach materials and media resources. We have talking points for interviews or speeches. A gallery of photographs and infographics are available to use free through the FSIS Flickr site.

Overview

• FSIS works hard to make sure the meat, poultry and egg products consumers bring home are safe, but consumers also play a role in preventing foodborne illnesses — commonly known as food poisoning.
• Our summer toolkit will focus on 1) grilling safety, 2) the Danger Zone and 3) keeping food safe while traveling.

Talking Points

This toolkit describes safe ways for consumers to prepare, store and transport food with an emphasis on outdoor activities such as grilling, picnicking, hiking and camping.

Remember Your Four Steps to Food Safety

Clean: Wash hands for 20 seconds and clean surfaces and utensils with soap and warm water before cooking and after contact with raw meat and poultry. After cleaning surfaces that raw meat and poultry have touched, apply a commercial or homemade sanitizing solution (1 tablespoon of liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of water). Use hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol.

Separate: When cooking and preparing multiple foods, it can be easy to spread bacteria throughout your meal prep area. Use separate cutting boards, plates and utensils to avoid cross-contamination between raw meat or poultry and foods that are ready to eat.

Cook: Confirm your meat and poultry products are cooked to a safe minimum internal temperature by using a food thermometer.

Chill: Chill foods promptly if not consuming immediately after cooking. Do not leave food at room temperature for longer than two hours. Keep cold foods cold. Pay special attention to cold foods at picnics like salads (e.g., egg, potato, chicken, etc.) that need to remain chilled while outside.

Remember Your Four Steps to Food Safety

• Clean: Wash hands for 20 seconds and clean surfaces and utensils with soap and warm water before cooking and after contact with raw meat and poultry. After cleaning surfaces that raw meat or poultry has touched, apply a commercial or homemade sanitizing solution (1 tablespoon of liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of water). Use hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol.
• Separate: Use separate cutting boards, plates and utensils to avoid cross-contamination between raw meat or poultry and foods that are ready-to-eat.
• Cook: Confirm foods are cooked to a safe internal temperature by using a food thermometer.
• Chill: Chill foods promptly if not consuming immediately after cooking. Do not leave food at room temperature for longer than two hours.

Cook Your Food to a Safe Internal Temperature

• Use a food thermometer to ensure your meat and poultry products have reached a safe minimum internal temperature.
• Always use a food thermometer when grilling outside. Meat and poultry cooked on a grill tend to brown quickly on the outside but may not be fully cooked on the inside. Never partially grill meat or poultry and finish cooking later. Color is never a reliable indicator of safety and doneness.

• Cook raw beef, pork, lamb and veal steaks, chops and roasts to 145 F. For safety and quality, allow meat to rest for at least three minutes before carving or consuming.
  • Cook fish to 145 F.
  • Cook raw ground beef, pork, lamb and veal to 160 F.
  • Cook egg dishes to 160 F.
  • Cook raw poultry to 165 F.

• To correctly take the temperature of burgers and not miss cold spots, insert the food thermometer through the side of the patty in the thickest part, until the probe reaches the center. For ground beef burgers, the thermometer should read 160 F. Ground poultry burgers should read 165 F.
• If you are cooking a product that is still frozen, the only way to know it is safe to eat is by confirming that it has reached a safe minimum internal temperature measured with a food thermometer. Frozen food is not finished cooking until it reaches the recommended internal temperature.

Avoid the Danger Zone

• Food that is between the temperatures of 40 F and 140 F is in the Danger Zone and only has a limited time before it becomes a food safety risk.
• Follow the two-hour rule: Foodborne illness-causing bacteria grows rapidly when food is left out at temperatures between 40 F and 140 F. Remember to refrigerate food within two hours, and within one hour if it’s a hot day (above 90 F).
• Dividing leftovers into smaller portions and refrigerating or freezing them in shallow containers helps leftovers cool quicker than storing them in large containers.
• When serving food, it is important to remember to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.
  • Keep cold foods at an internal temperature of 40 F or below by keeping food nestled in ice on the table or kept in a cooler until ready to serve.
  • Keep hot foods at an internal temperature of 140 F or above by placing food on warming trays or on the grill.

Safety on the Road

• Ensuring your cooler is fully stocked with ice or frozen gel packs can help keep perishable foods cold. Pack beverages in one cooler and perishable food in another cooler.
  • The beverage cooler may be opened frequently, causing the temperature inside the cooler to fluctuate and become unsafe for perishable foods.
  • Use a cooler when taking perishable foods in the car and keep it out of the sun. Once outside, place it in the shade.
• Full coolers will keep your perishable foods cold and safe for much longer than half full ones.

Camping and Backpacking

• If you are backpacking for more than a day, you can still bring cold foods for the first day, but you'll have to pack shelf-stable items for the following days. Canned goods are safe, but heavy, so plan your menu carefully. Advances in food technology have produced relatively lightweight staples that don't need refrigeration or careful packaging:
  • pre-packaged, shelf-stable meals
  • peanut butter in plastic jars
  • concentrated juice boxes
  • canned tuna, ham, chicken and beef
  • dried noodles and soups
  • beef jerky and other shelf-stable meats
  • dehydrated foods
  • whole or dried fruits
  • nuts
  • powdered milk and fruit drinks

Social Media

Share Summer Food Safety guidance with your followers and be sure to use the hashtag: #SummerFoodSafety. Follow us on Twitter for our summer food safety Tweets and Retweet us! Don’t forget to tag us in your tweets (@USDAFoodSafety).

Infographics

Summer Food Safety Steps (Vertical)

Summer Food Safety Steps (Horizontal)

Is It Done Yet? (English)

Is It Done Yet? (Spanish)

How to Use This Toolkit

This toolkit is designed to help you get started with your local Back-to-School food safety campaign. In this toolkit you will find the materials you can use to promote safe food handling during the back-to-school season.   

We have organized this material to help make your outreach informative, helpful and fun. Resources include:

• Talking Points
• Social Media
• Infographics

To encourage co-branding, you may add your organization’s name to outreach materials and media resources. We have talking points for interviews or speeches. A gallery of photographs and infographics are available to use free through the FSIS Flickr site.

Overview

• FSIS works hard to make sure the meat, poultry and egg products consumers bring home are safe, but consumers also play a role in preventing foodborne illnesses — commonly known as food poisoning.
• Our summer toolkit will focus on 1) the four steps to food safety: clean, separate, cook and chill; 2) the Danger Zone; 3) how to safely pack a school lunch; and 4) non-perishable food options.

Talking Points

When preparing lunches, follow the four steps to food safety.  
Children are among the most vulnerable to foodborne illness, commonly known as food poisoning, so parents and caregivers need to take extra precautions when preparing and packing safe school lunches.

• Clean: Wash your hands with clean, running water for at least 20 seconds before, during and after meal preparation. Don’t use the same plates and utensils that held raw meat for cooked products. Wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils and countertops with hot, soapy water between uses and sanitize. Use a store-bought sanitizing solution or make one at home using one tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach in one gallon of water to sanitize surfaces and utensils. 
• Separate: When preparing food, keep raw meat and poultry separated from ready-to-eat items. Use separate cutting boards, plates and utensils to avoid cross contamination.
• Cook: Confirm foods are cooked to a safe minimum internal temperature by using a food thermometer.  If you will be cooking more than you will pack, make sure you store your leftovers safely in sealed containers or airtight packaging. To do this, cut food into smaller pieces or divide large amounts of food into shallow containers to allow food to cool rapidly. Leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days or can remain safe indefinitely when frozen.
• Chill: Keep perishable foods out of the Danger Zone – temperatures between 40 F and 140 F. Do not leave food at room temperature for longer than two hours. When packing a school lunch, use an insulated lunch bag with at least two cold sources. If packing hot foods, use an insulated container to keep food safe.

Keep perishable foods out of the Danger Zone.

• Harmful bacteria multiply rapidly in temperatures between 40 F and 140 F (known as the “Danger Zone”).
  • Perishable food shouldn’t be left out of the refrigerator or without a cold source for more than two hours. You can use two frozen gel packs (not smaller than 5x3 inches each) or combine a frozen gel pack with a frozen juice box or frozen bottle of water.
  • If packing a hot lunch, use an insulated container to maintain it above 140 F.
  • Discard any perishable food that was not kept refrigerated for over two hours.

Pack lunches safely

• Pack lunches containing perishable food in an insulated lunch bag with enough cold sources to ensure perishables stay below 40 F. Perishable food can be unsafe to eat by lunchtime if packed in a paper bag or without a cold source.
  • Cold sources include frozen gel packs, frozen juice boxes or frozen bottles of water.
  • Freeze juice boxes or bottles of water overnight, or pack your lunch with frozen gel packs. By lunchtime, frozen juice or water should be thawed and ready to drink.
• If you’re packing a hot lunch, such as soup, chili, or stew, use an insulated container to keep it hot. Fill the container with boiling water, let it stand for a few minutes, empty it and then pour in the piping hot food. Keep the insulated container closed until lunchtime to keep the food hot — 140 F or above.

Safe Non-perishable Options

Common food options that don’t need refrigeration and will remain safe include:

• Whole fruits – apples, bananas and oranges;
• raw, uncut vegetables – baby carrots, cherry tomatoes;
• hard cheeses – cheddar, gouda, parmesan;
• shelf stable meats and fish (unopened);
• Grains – bread, crackers;

Condiments – peanut butter, jelly, ketchup, mustard, and pickles.

Social Media

Share safe food safety guidance with your followers and be sure to use the hashtag #BackToSchool #FoodSafety. Follow us on Twitter for our Back-to-School food safety Tweets and Retweet us! Don’t forget to tag us in your tweets (@USDAFoodSafety).

Back-to-School Food Safety Tips

English

Spanish

Back-To-School Food Safety (Image)

Back-To-School Food Safety (Animation)

Pack A Safe Lunch Infographic (Image)

Pack A Safe Lunch Infographic (Animation)

Tips to Keep Your Kids Healthy (Rectangle)

Tips to Keep Your Kids Healthy (Square)

Back-to-School for K-5: Handwashing

Back-to-School for 6-8: Microwave Cooking

Back-to-School for 9-12: Chilling Leftovers