You Must Chill! USDA Launches Food Safe Families Campaign

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, June 30th, 2011

John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler admonishing Jeremy Piven’s-drunken-mess-of-a-character in Say Anything was the first thing that popped into my head when I heard about this week’s launch of the Food Safe Families Campaign:

The $2 million multimedia public service campaign is spearheaded by the USDA, in collaboration with the FDA, the CDC and the Ad Council. The launch was scheduled just in time for the Fourth of July, a holiday that may have originally celebrated independence (for some Americans) but has now become justification for a national day of outdoor beer-guzzling, carnivorous gluttony. The USDA figures that grilling season is a time of increased risk and therefore the perfect time of year to get our collective attention.

Each year, there are an estimated 76 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States; 325,000 hospitalizations; and 5,000 deaths.

The Food Safe Families message seems simple enough, as the campaign is built around four food safety “steps” (as in “Check Your Steps,” the motto).

CLEAN: Clean kitchen surfaces, utensils, and hands with soap and water.

SEPARATE: Separate raw meats from other foods by using different cutting boards.

COOK: Cook foods to the right temperature by using a food thermometer. (160 Fahrenheit for those hamburgers!)

(and finally, my favorite)

CHILL: (You must) Chill (!) raw and prepared food promptly.

But NYU Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health Marion Nestle raises an excellent point in reaction to Food Safe Families. She calls the campaign “cute” and “humorous” but validly questions its efficacy in light of the fact that so much of today’s outbreaks actually stem from food that has been contaminated way before it gets into the hands of the home cook (e.g., raw sprouts).

Nestle’s answer? To “stop food safety problems at their source” by implementing “a functional food safety system. This means rules that require all producers to follow food safety procedures and a government with the authority and resources to make sure they do.”

While this is clearly an important long-term solution and goal, we all could do well to take some simple precautions in our kitchens in the meantime to control what we can: mainly, cross-contamination and time and temperature abuses. (Stay away from the TDZ, the temperature danger zone, which is 41 to 135 Fahrenheit. This is when nasty things, i.e. bacteria, begin to multiply in your food. If your meat and potato salad is out for more than four hours this holiday, throw it away!)

To learn more about the campaign, or to get your Fourth of July grilling questions answered, join @FoodSafetyGov and @USDAFoodSafety in a live Twitter Chat at 1:00 p.m. EDT, using the hashtag #checksteps.

-Johnisha M. Levi

Tags: Ad Council, Be Food Safe Campaign, CDC, chill, clean, contamination, cook, e-coli, FDA, Food Safe Families Campaign, foodborne illness, Gut Check, John Cusack, Johnisha M. Levi, Lloyd Dobbler, Marion Nestle, Northern Virginia, Northern Virginia Magazine, NoVA, NYU, Say Anything, separate, spinach, sprouts, USDA