Top Food Safety Websites
You ask…How do I learn about food safety regulation? What pathogens in foods can make me sick? What temperature should I safely cook my roast beef to and how do I take food temperatures? How do I clean and sanitize anything according to the FDA Food Code? What and where is the most recent version of the FDA Food Code? Where can I find food safety educational materials galore in book form or online? Do I need them in Spanish or a Chinese dialect?
Of course, answers to these and other burning food safety questions are hot on the Internet circuits today. If there’s a lot you need to know, realize you are not alone. With thousands of food professionals tackling the same issues you are, you can bet there is talk about it all on the Web. Where do you find it? Here is a guide to some helpful food safety websites.
FDA Food Code: It’s all here in whatever year’s update your state follows (2013 is the most current) | Visit>
FDA HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) Information on food safety management systems and education. Click on Retail & Food Service HACCP for greater detail. | Visit>
CDC Estimating Foodborne Illness in the U.S.: Latest information on foodborne illness in the U.S. | Visit>
FDA Bad Bug Book: This is the site with the famous name! Check here for details about a long list of foodborne pathogens, and follow links to outbreak information and related Web pages. Download the latest version of the book for free. | Visit>
USDA Food & Nutrition Service: The site provides food safety education and training resources for school food service professionals and child nutrition program operators. | Visit>
Handwashing Leadership Forum: This site is a wealth of information on the many elements of clean hands focused on the food industry with lots of training tools. Great resources here for hand hygiene. | Visit>
FDA’s Oral Culture Learner Project: provides materials in many languages with visual pictures to help food employees understand the reasons why following proper food safety practices is important to prevent illnesses, deaths, and loss of income and reputation resulting from food-related outbreaks. | Visit>
International Food Safety Icons : Visual Logos about food safety concepts that can be downloaded & used in training materials from the International Association of Food Protection. | Visit>
Iowa State University Extension Food Safety Project: A website offering food safety lessons, reference to common pathogens, HACCP & food law information, news, and links to more food safety sites. | Visit>
National Restaurant Association & ServSafe: ServSafe materials for manager certification, foodworker training, and other foods service educational tools. New training info for alcohol service & food allergens is also available. | Visit>
FoodHandler Inc.: Several free downloads, temperature charts, and signs. Handwashing signs available in English and Spanish. | Visit>
Bottom Line: There are multitudes of food safety sites to surf that we didn’t list, but these will get you started.
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About the Author: Lacie Thrall
Lacie Thrall passed away in early 2017 after a long illness. She dedicated her 35-year career to improving the health and well-being of others by promoting food safety best practices. Lacie worked in environmental health for 17 years before joining FoodHandler in 1997 as the Director of Safety Management. While at FoodHandler, she trained employees and customers on safe food handling practices, including proper hand hygiene and glove use. Later as a FoodHandler consultant, Lacie provided the foodservice industry with food safety information and advice through her blog on FoodHandler.com.
Handling Leafy Green Salad
We have had several produce outbreaks of foodborne disease from our lettuce, spinach, and other greens in the last several years that have been devastating to the produce growers and distributors, retail grocery stores, restaurants, and consumers.
Food Packaging Safety in a Vacuum
Extending the shelf life of fresh foods has come a long way in the food industry since curing meats with salt and sugar or canning vegetables with heat processing. The food service and consumer markets needed some better visual packages to draw the eye to the freshness factor and the technology of food packaging has filled our dinner plate. Vacuum packaging and modified atmosphere packaging, shortened to “MAP”, are the terms used for the method of food packaging used every time we choose convenience over more complex scratch meal preparation. According to industry statistics, billions of packages of vacuum and MAP-packaged foods flood the marketplace today. In both modified-atmosphere and vacuum packaging, food is packaged in a pouch made of barrier film.
The Eleven Commandments of Food Safety at Your Restaurant
Lists help us remember all kinds of information. Given the list of recent national foodborne outbreaks in the news, keep repeating this list to your food service team. They are kind of like “commandments”. As a professional in a food service facility we should think of the very basic food safety concepts that every crew member should aspire to learn, even though this list may have different priorities based on your menu. The first 3 apply to anyone who serves food, from a bag of popcorn to a full course meal. As chefs or managers, if we can “set the example” by repeating good food safety practices visibly to the crew, it will help them understand how important it is to the success of your facility. Thou shalt:
The Worst Customer Complaint: Foodborne Illness
Food service managers and crew try to follow the rules of food protection. Yet, occasionally a complaint may arise and these calls take priority over all other daily crises. If you have been in the food service industry long enough, you may have gotten one of these. A customer may claim, "I think your food made me ill." These words inflict instant anxiety. If it happens, here are some next steps to think about in advance of such a claim:
