Food Safety

Food Safety for Volunteer Food Handlers
The CDC's Food Safety Web Site
A Serious Foodborne Illness Can Be Prevented

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 food service - like restaurants and grocery stores - these types of dinners aren't generally supervised by local public health departments."

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." The publication 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 it from www.fsis.usda.gov.

The CDC's Food Safety Web Site

Did 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? and that 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, and other interesting facts, can be found on the CDC Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. The most common 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.

To help prevent foodborne illnesses, the CDC recommends the following steps:

• COOK meat, poultry and eggs thoroughly. Using a thermometer to measure the internal temperature of meat is a good way to be sure that it is cooked sufficiently to kill bacteria. For example, ground beef should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160^o F. Eggs should be cooked until the yolk is firm.
• SEPARATE: Don't cross-contaminate one food with another. Avoid cross-contaminating foods by washing hands, utensils, and cutting boards after they have been in contact with raw meat or poultry and before they touch another food. Put cooked meat on a clean platter, rather than back on one that held the raw meat.
• CHILL: Refrigerate leftovers promptly. Bacteria can grow quickly at room temperature, so refrigerate leftover foods if they are not going to be eaten within 4 hours. Large volumes of food will cool more quickly if they are divided into several shallow containers for refrigeration.
• CLEAN: Wash produce. Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables in running tap water to remove visible dirt and grime. Remove and discard the outermost leaves of a head of lettuce or cabbage. Because bacteria can grow well on the cut surface of fruit or vegetable, be careful not to contaminate these foods while slicing them up on the cutting board, and avoid leaving cut produce at room temperature for many hours. Don’t be a source of foodborne illness yourself. Wash your hands with soap and water before preparing food. Avoid preparing food for others if you yourself have a diarrheal illness. Changing a baby’s diaper while preparing food is a bad idea that can easily spread illness.
• REPORT: Report suspected foodborne illnesses to your local health department. The local public health department is an important part of the food safety system. Often calls from concerned citizens are how outbreaks are first detected. If a public health official contacts you to find our more about an illness you had, your cooperation is important. In public health investigations, it can be as important to talk to healthy people as to ill people. Your cooperation may be needed even if you are not ill.

CDC Food Safety Office
Fight BAC! Partnership for Food Safety Education

A Serious Foodborne Illness Can Be Prevented

Toxoplasmosis 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 contracted by eating infected meat or by contamination of food with soil that contains the parasite.

An issue of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publication, Preventing Congenital Toxoplasmosis, summarizes recommendations made by a CDC-sponsored national workshop. Among the CDC's recommendations for prevention of toxoplasmosis infection:

• Cook food thoroughly to 160 degrees F and check internal temperatures with a food thermometer.
• Peel or thoroughly wash vegetables and fruits before eating.
• Since cats can be a source of the parasite, pregnant women are advised not to change cat litter. Also, wear gloves while gardening.

For more information, go to the USDA web site or call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at
1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854); for the hearing-impaired (TTY) 1-800-256-7072.