How Much Do You Know About Food Safety?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that each year roughly one in six Americans gets sick and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases. And that is just an estimate as not all agents (bacteria, viruses and pathogens) that cause foodborne diseases are known.

But what is known are things consumers can do to protect themselves from these illnesses like washing hands before preparing food, separating foods during preparation, cooking foods such as meat, poultry and eggs thoroughly, refrigerating leftovers promptly and reporting suspected foodborne illnesses to your local health department.

Kansas State University in Manhattan has developed an online program, “Food Safety for Boomers and Beyond”, geared toward older adults to help educate them about common food safety issues.

“The program is based on food safety issues relevant to older adult needs, but adult consumers of any age will benefit,” says Paula Peters, the assistant director for family and consumer sciences with K-State Research and Extension. She says Congress has identified food safety as a critical issue for our country so the online program is timely.

The multimedia program contains up-to-date important information to help limit exposure to foodborne illnesses.

There are five short instructional videos, available in both English and Spanish, interactive quizzes, and printable handouts.

The topics covered include:

• foodborne illness
  
• handwashing
  
• purchasing and safely preparing food at home
  
• eating out
  
• properly storing leftovers
  

The program was developed by a team of K-State faculty from several departments that conducted the research and developed the educational program with a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.