health and safety

In anticipation of the beginning of football and tailgating season, I have put together  some of the most frequently asked questions that USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline receives about hamburgers and food safety. Whether you’re grilling burgers at home or outside the stadium, here’s what you need to know:

Do you have guidelines for buying ground beef or hamburgers?  What's the best way to handle them?

• Choose a package that is not torn and feels cold. If possible, put it in a plastic bag so leaking juices won't drip on other foods.
• Make ground beef one of the last items to go into your shopping cart. Be sure to separate raw meat from ready-cooked items in your cart.
• Have the cashier bag raw meat separately from other items and plan to drive directly home. You may want to take a cooler with ice for perishables.

This month, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is taking part in a “Cook It Safe” campaign to raise awareness about the need to follow package instructions in order to fully cook pre-prepared foods and prevent foodborne illness. Due to illnesses in recent years resulting from undercooked pre-prepared meals, the “Cook It Safe!” campaign urges consumers to follow four key food safety tips to be sure food is fully and safely prepared at home:

1. Read and Follow Package Cooking Instructions
Frozen or refrigerated convenience foods may appear ready-to-eat and simply in need of being reheated, but many contain raw products that must be fully cooked before eating. The product’s label should tell whether reheating or thorough cooking is needed. Don’t ignore steps like covering, stirring halfway through cooking, or allowing food to rest before eating—these steps contribute to even cooking.

For as long as Dr. Katherine Ralston could remember, she wanted to be a veterinarian. "My 6th grade teacher wrote on my report card (that I still have!), 'When you become a vet, I'll bring Clint (his black Labrador) to see you.' As I got older, I discovered more and more reasons why I wanted to pursue veterinary medicine, including the challenge and choices for career focuses."

In 2008, that dream of becoming a veterinarian became a reality when Katherine Ralston, a little girl from Vandergrift, Pa., became Dr. Katherine Ralston, graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, and full-time public health veterinarian, or PHV, at USDA’S Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

For many American consumers, the first thing that comes to mind when they think of USDA is the mark of inspection on their food labels and products.

The mark of inspection gives consumers confidence that the meat, poultry and processed egg products they are about to enjoy are safe and wholesome. And we can give consumers this confidence because of the work of the men and women of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

That is why, this week, FSIS launched Faces of Food Safety, a monthly in-depth look at one of the scientists, veterinarians, inspectors, or other professionals that play a role in making our nation’s food safe.

Cross posted from the FoodSafety.gov blog:

We look forward all year to our summer vacations. Whether you’re camping, hitting the beach, boating, or relaxing in a mountain cabin or beach house, you’ll probably be packing food.

Plan Ahead
When planning meals for a vacation, think about buying shelf-stable foods, such as canned foods, to stay safe. If you are packing perishable foods (meat, poultry, eggs, and salads) for eating on the road or to cook at your vacation spot, plan to keep everything on ice in your cooler. Have plenty of ice or frozen gel-packs on hand before starting to pack food. Consider packing drinks in a separate cooler so the food cooler is not opened frequently. Read last week’s blog to learn more tips on packing a cooler.

Here in Washington, D.C., and probably where you live too, it is hot! This week’s Check Your Steps blog focuses on a timely food safety step—Chill. You may feel like this guy, but in reality we don’t recommend keeping your food cold with fans, no matter how many you can find.

Bacteria grow rapidly between 40 °F and 140 °F, and when it’s above 90 °F outside, cold food heats to those temperatures much faster. Portable coolers can be your best friend during outdoor summer activities or grocery shopping, but pack them correctly to keep food at 40 °F or below so it doesn’t spoil or make you sick.

For the past two Tuesdays as part of the Food Safe Families campaign, I’ve blogged about two basic food safety steps that are important but easy to implement in your food prep routine—cook and clean. Today, I’m going to focus on preventing a sneaky food safety hazard that can happen at many points between purchasing and eating food: cross-contamination.

Cross-contamination occurs when juices from uncooked foods come in contact with safely cooked foods, or with other raw foods that don’t need to be cooked, like fruits and vegetables. The juices from some raw foods, like meats and seafood, can contain harmful bacteria that could make you and your family sick.

America has one of the safest and most abundant food supplies in the world. But even in this country, too many people get sick from the food they eat.

This year, one in six Americans will get food poisoning – that’s 48 million people. 128,000 will end up in the hospital. And 3,000 will die. These aren’t just statistics. These are real people, real families, impacted by the food they put on the table.

Bacteria exist everywhere in our environment, and some of them can make us really sick. Illness-causing bacteria exist in or on food, on countertops, kitchen utensils, hands, pets, and in the dirt where food grows. As part of the Food Safe Families campaign, this week’s Check Your Steps blog focuses on cleaning before, during, and after preparing and eating food to keep your family safer from food poisoning.

I just came back from Orlando, Florida where I attended a meeting of the Produce Safety Alliance, a joint project by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Cornell University to provide farmers who grow and market fruits and vegetables with training and education about on-farm food safety practices.

At that meeting I talked about how America’s farmers and ranchers are one of our nation’s greatest assets.  We rely on them for our food, to preserve our environment and to help strengthen our nation’s economy.  I talked about the importance of the USDA and FDA working together to address on- farm food safety practices in a way that grows and strengthens America’s farms and rural communities.