Food Safety

Food Safety Basics

It is important to handle, store, and cook food safely and take precautions to prevent foodborne illnesses, allergen contact, or cross contamination. It may be beneficial to create a classroom policy for food safety. A permission slip from parent/guardian may also be a good idea to include. Here is one that you can use and adapt. *(PRINT READY RESOURCE)* By following some simple steps, you can keep yourself and students safe and healthy.

It is beneficial for you as the educator to learn or review food safety concepts and set the example for your students. For example:

- 1. 1. - Tie back hair or wear a hat when working with food, remove rings and other large jewelry items before working with food, keep your phone and other common germ carriers away to ensure there is a clean working space.
      - Brush up on food safe handling through Partnership for Food Safety Education. They have a variety of free webinars available on a variety of topics related to food safety.
      - ServSafe has a Food Safety Focus page with information on cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting different areas in the kitchen. There are posters as well as blog posts that explain the topics. *(PRINT READY RESOURCE)*
      - There is a podcast called “Risky or Not Risky” that covers risks from everyday germs.
      - You can also follow SafePlatesfsic on Instagram to see information with seasonal reminders regarding food safety.

Managing Allergens: With food safety and kids it is important to keep in mind allergens and minimizing cross contact. Cross contact occurs when one food mixes with another food. This can be especially dangerous when a student has an allergy. Food Allergy Research & Education has a great website with tips to eliminate cross contact. Remember the common allergens are milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans (sesame to be included January 1, 2023).

Useful Resources:

- 1. - - Read more in-depth about food safety on the CDC website, which includes a infographic to hang in your classroom as a reminder about good food safety guides. *(PRINT READY RESOURCE)*
      - The USDA has useful posters with reminders for following good food safety practices that can be hung near a hand washing station or around the room. *(PRINT READY RESOURCE)*
      - Growing Minds Farm to School offers some great tips for General Food Safety (pg 7) and Safe Food Handling (pg 8).

Food Safe Lesson Plans

- The Partnership for Food Safety Education includes curricula and activities for kids K-12th grade including videos, teacher guides, and connecting food safety to math, language arts, art, and science.
- Foodhero.org through Oregon State University has examples of activities that show how bacteria can grow and spread. Check out the “Kids & Teens” Section for these activities.

There are four steps to food safety: clean, separate, cook, chill. The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service has an extensive website with information on food safety and details on the four steps, but below is a brief outline.

Clean

1. Clean: To prevent germs from spreading, include the following processes:

- - - Hand washing: it is important that everyone wash hands with warm, soapy water for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food.
      - Hand washing does NOT need to take extra time. Learn about High Speed Handwashing and how it can effectively be done for a group in a short period of time.
        See other resources including posters and activities from Oregon State University Extension regarding hand washing in English and Spanish. *(PRINT READY RESOURCE)*
        New Mexico State University has a great series called Don’t Be Gross with simple videos geared towards kids showing how quickly germs can spread and why it is important to wash your hands.
    - Washing surfaces: This step includes the table or counter top, any utensils to be used, and any appliances. Wipe up spills soon after they occur.
      - There is a difference between cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting, all of which are important when leading students. Here is a guide to reference.
    - Wash all produce: Instill in students the importance of washing produce before eating it, regardless of where it was grown. **If your school does not have potable water in fountains, you will need to wash produce before bringing it to the classroom – or consider produce-free recipes.
      - Here is a great video for a reminder on how to keep food safe. It can be shared with your class or used as a review before leading students.
        This poster from the CDC can help serve as a reminder for your produce. *(PRINT READY RESOURCE)*

Separate

2. Separate: This step is important for preventing cross-contamination – starting with purchasing and also involving storing, preparing, serving and more.

- Be sure to refrigerate perishable food as soon as possible (within 2 hours of purchasing). An important consideration for cooking at school: is there an area that will keep the food at the proper temperature? Sometimes smaller refrigerators may not keep food at the correct temperature, so you may have to locate another place to store the food.
- When preparing food, cross contamination can occur easily when you have many hands working with food. It will be good to consider if the activity is one in which each student can have their own food item, or if they need to be working together. If the students are going to eat the final product, to help prevent cross-contamination, consider structuring the activity so that each student works with the food that they will eat.

Cook

3. Cook: It is important to cook foods (especially meats) to a safe internal temperature. Some sort of cooking step (e.g., with microwave, burner, stove) can also be helpful in group cooking settings in order to kill whatever bacteria may be on the food items involved. Safe minimal cooking temperatures are listed here. *(PRINT READY RESOURCE)*

Chill

4. Chill: As mentioned above, it is important to store food at safe temperatures (less than 40 degrees Fahrenheit when refrigerated) – and in clean cooling units – to prevent bacteria from spreading. Consider where you will be able to store food items if they require refrigeration, noting that smaller refrigerators sometimes are not able to withstand the correct temperatures to maintain a safe environment.

Important to note: foods after being cooked should be chilled from 135 degrees to 41 degrees within 4 hours to prevent bacteria growth.

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