Food Safety Essentials

1. Food Safety Essentials Becky Moulder GRIT 654

2. Learner Demographics • This course is designed for adult learners who work in food service, management, or distribution. • It is also intended to teach basic food safety to healthcare workers and public health officials responsible for tracking food recalls.

3. Integration of Technology This mini unit will utilize the following types of technology: • Blogs • YouTube videos • Podcast • Online Quiz • Online Crossword Puzzle • PowerPoint • Interactive Whiteboards • Infrared Thermometers

4. Course Objectives • Understand proper hand washing techniques and kitchen sanitation practices. • Identify foods that must be kept separated and sources of potential cross-contamination. • Understand correct minimum food temperatures, how to check food temperatures, and identify the “danger temperature zone range.” • Recognize correct refrigeration and freezer temperatures. Identify foods that must be promptly chilled. • Demonstrate knowledge of food safety essentials by creating as a group a plan to prepare a hypothetical dinner for 150 guests.

5. Before we begin . . . Let’s see how much you already know about food handling and safety by taking the food safety quiz available here: http://culinaryarts.about.com/library/quizzes/foodsafety/blquiz.htm?

6. Lesson Schedule This course will consist of 4 lessons based on the 4 key steps of food safety. The 4 steps are: • Clean • Separate • Cook • Chill

7. Lesson 1: Clean Objective: Understand proper hand washing techniques and kitchen sanitation practices. Read: We all know to wash our hands before preparing food and to wash away any visible dirt on produce, but thorough cleaning, especially on often forgotten surfaces, is an essential first step to food preparation. • Cutting boards, especially wooden ones, can harbor bacteria and need to be thoroughly cleaned after each use. Plastic and acrylic cutting boards are less porous, durable, and inexpensive to replace often. Sanitize cutting boards by pouring boiling water over them and allowing them to air dry completely. Alternatively, you may use a solution of 1 tablespoon bleach to 1 gallon water instead of the boiling water. • Clean knives and all kitchen utensils using hot soapy water, making sure no food particles remain.

8. Lesson 1: continued . . • Wipe all kitchen equipment before and after each use using a clean damp towel or paper towel. Do not reuse towels as they may spread bacteria. • Clean up spills and splatters immediately; this will make them much easier to remove and will also preventing slipping in the kitchen. • Wash all produce, even fruits and vegetables with a rind or that you intend to peel, under cold running water and scrub to remove any dirt. Fruit such as cantaloupe can harbor bacteria and dirt in the rind; cutting through the rind can transfer the bacteria to the flesh of the fruit. Watch: USDA-produced video about cleaning food available here.

9. Lesson 1: continued . . Watch: Check out this videoproduced by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to understand the importance of hand washing and disease prevention. Activity: Blog—Do you think a lack of proper hand washing is a problem? What are some of the challenges to getting people do it regularly?

10. Lesson 2: Separate Objective: Identify foods that must be kept separated and sources of potential cross-contamination. Read: Use separate cutting boards for produce, poultry, red meat, and seafood. Different colored boards that correspond to each food make this an easy task. • Keep raw seafood, poultry, and meat away from produce and other items in the refrigerator. To prevent meat/seafood juices from dripping onto other foods, wrap these items tightly in plastic, place them in a plastic resealable bag, and keep these items on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. • Use separate utensils to cut and cook raw foods and serve cooked foods.

11. Lesson 2: continued . . Activity: Play the Cross-Contamination Crossword Puzzle • Watch: USDA’s video on food separation. • Learn more about proper storage for different fruits and vegetables here.

12. Lesson 2: continued . .

13. Lesson 3: Cook Objective: Understand correct minimum food temperatures, how to check food temperatures, and identify the “danger temperature zone range.” Read: It is important to cook foods like meat, seafood, poultry, and eggs thoroughly to kill any bacteria that may be contained in the raw food, particularly those present in the juices. Salmonella and e. Coli are two of the most common food pathogens, and both have many different strains that can make people sick. • The elderly, young children, pregnant women and people who are immunocompromised are especially at risk for becoming sick. • Review this information from CDC regarding preventing Salmonella infections and other foodborne illnesses: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/FoodSafety/?s_cid=vitalsigns_070

14. Lesson 3: continued . . Listen: The following podcast, “Making Food Safer to Eat,” is produced by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and contains important information on specific pathogens that may be present in food. http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/player.asp?f=7091527 Watch: USDA video on cooking food to safe temperatures Review: A list of minimum cooking temperatures for a variety of foods is available here: http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/mintemp.html

15. Lesson 3: continued . . Activity: Blog—”What are the consequences of foodborne illness? Think in terms beyond just the physical symptoms (e.g., health professionals, food manufacturers, farmers, etc.) Who is affected?”

16. Lesson 4: Chill Objective: Recognize correct refrigeration and freezer temperatures. Identify foods that must be promptly chilled. Lesson: Refrigerate all perishable and/or cooked foods within two hours of preparation. Immediately refrigerate items containing dairy. • Do not refreeze meats that have been allowed to thaw. • Marinate meat in a tightly sealed bag in the refrigerator. • Remember that refrigeration slows, but does not completely stop the growth of bacteria. Discard leftovers after 3 days. • Freezing food stops the growth of bacteria. Be sure to tightly wrap items in the freezer to prevent “freezer burn.” Freezer burned foods are still safe to eat when properly thawed and cooked, but the taste and texture may be affected.

17. Lesson 4: continued . . Activity: Use a handheld infrared thermometer to check out the different temperatures of foods in your home refrigerator, office lunch room, and food at restaurants. Record your results in a chart, stating what food you checked, the location of the food, the ideal temperature the food should be, and the actual temperature. Write a blog post describing your findings. Did anything surprise you? Shock you? • Watch: USDA video on proper food refrigeration

18. Final Project Objective: Demonstrate knowledge of food safety essentials by creating a plan to prepare a hypothetical dinner for 150 guests. Activity: Your team is responsible for planning, preparing, cooking, and serving a hypothetical dinner for 150 guests visiting your company. • Create a plan for choosing the menu, organizing what equipment you will need, how you will prepare the food, and what precautions/steps you will need to take to ensure proper food temperatures and safety. • Share your presentation to the event committee using an interactive whiteboard. You may include additional videos, podcasts, and web tools to present your plan.

19. Assessment • I included an activity in which students test the temperatures of foods using an infrared thermometer because it contributes to higher learning. Students are asked to perform research and describe the reasons for their results. • The food safety videos from USDA were included because they are short and light-hearted, which I think makes them easy to remember. • The final project requires students to work as a team and develop a large-scale food safety plan using the information they just learned. The project involves critical thinking and encourages them to anticipate potential problems. • There are a few links in each lesson to important web resources. Students are not expected memorize the correct minimum cooking temperature for every food, but can instead rely on “fingertip knowledge,” described in Curtis Bonk’s The World Is Open on pg. 57. Fingertip knowledge can be more effective than memorization when it involves information that changes frequently.

20. Justification

21. Justification • I think that this course meets the criteria of the rubric because it firsts determines what the user’s prior knowledge is using a food safety quiz, and then new, more detailed information is provided. • Students are required to use the information they learned in each lesson with an interactive assignment at the end. The activities were chosen to promote higher learning and reasoning. Beyond the facts they are presented, I want students to understand the impact of a lack of food safety, and why prevention is so importance. The blog posts and final project require them to apply knowledge and work collaboratively to create a plan and anticipate potential challenges. • This mini unit effectively integrates several different forms of interactive technology that support the course objectives.

22. References • Food Network. “Storing Fruits and Vegetables.” http://www.foodnetwork.com/how-to/storing-fruits-and-vegetables/index.html. • Minnesota Department of Health. “Prevent Cross-Contamination.” http://www.health.state.mn.us/foodsafety/clean/xcontamination.html#more • New York Times Company. About.com/culinaryarts. “Quiz: Food Safety and Sanitation.” http://culinaryarts.about.com/library/quizzes/foodsafety/blquiz.htm • United States. Center for Disease Control. “Put Your Hands Together.” http://www.cdc.gov/CDCTV/HandsTogether/ • United States. Department of Agriculture. Food Safety and Inspection Service. Food Safety Education. “Check Your Steps!” http://www.fsis.usda.gov/food_safety_education/Check_Your_Steps/index.asp • YouTube.com USDA Food Safety Videos. http://www.youtube.com/user/USDAFoodSafety?feature=watch