August 3, 2000

A total of fifty middle level and high school teachers from across the country are taking advantage of a six-day professional develop program in food science this summer being held in and around Washington, DC. The teachers were selected from more than 150 applicants. Those selected represent 18 states and U.S. territories, including Hawaii and Alaska, and Puerto Rico. The middle school program was held July 16-22 and the high school program is being held this week--July 31-August 5.

The professional development program, sponsored by FDA and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), seeks to prepare teachers to provide lessons in food science and food safety for their students using the FDA-NSTA supplementary food science curriculum "Food Science and Our Food Supply." The program is still under development and will be available to teachers in the fall.

FDA is sponsoring the professional development program for teachers and the supplementary food science curriculum to encourage safe food handling behaviors on the part of students, many of who go on to work in food service establishments. In addition, the students will be sharing safe food handling information with their families. In the end, FDA expects this program to lead to a reduction in foodborne illness.

During the program, the teachers heard from food safety experts on a variety of topics include the Food Safety Initiative, new food science research challenges, outbreak investigations, Healthy People 2010 and new technologies to improve food safety. A presentation on careers in food science by The Institute of Food Technologists rounded out the presentations.

Field trips provided an opportunity to see the farm-to-table food safety continuum in action. An aquaculture facility in Maryland and the Beltsville Agriculture Research Center focused on food safety during food production; the airline catering facility at Reagan National Airport focused on the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) system in action. The teachers learned about resources available to them at the National Agriculture Library’s during a tour of the Foodborne Illness Education Information Center. And, the teachers tried out their laboratory skills at the University of Maryland, where they tested the experiments contained in "Science and Our Food Supply."

Back in Washington, the teachers toured CFSAN labs, surfed the web to research foodborne pathogens, and viewed preliminary footage that will go into an accompanying video. The video, which follows food safety from farm-to-table, features various food science experts including those from the National Center for Food Safety and Technology in Illinois and the FDA Regional Lab in Jamaica, New York.

To participate in this program, the teachers have agreed to provide similar training to other teachers in their states during the 2000-2001 school year.

Food Safety Initiative Staff E-mail: chammett@cfsan.fda.gov

Office Number: (202) 260-8920 · FAX (202) 260-9653 CFSAN Web site: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/