October 24, 2002

Radio Unica Hispanic Health Fair Initiative

A CFSAN campaign to educate Hispanic consumers about safe food handling successfully reached more than 18,000 people at 7 Radio Unica health fairs held throughout the country. Food Safety Staff shared food safety information in fairs at each of the following locations: Panorama City, CA (4,000 consumers); Fresno, CA (3,000 consumers); McAllen, TX (3,000 consumers); San Antonio, TX (2,000 consumers); Pasadena, TX (2,000 consumers); Union City, CA (2,000 consumers); and Phoenix, AZ (2,000 consumers). The tally on the final three health fairs is not yet available, but they were held in Hialeah Gardens, FL; Bedford Park, IL; and Uniondale, NY. The Radio Unica 2002 Health Fairs were scheduled for 10 event markets with high density Hispanic presence in 7 states. They were held all day on Sunday and located on the grounds of Wal-Mart stores in a 80X40 foot Radio Unica tent that held exhibit booths and screening areas for sponsors. A 30-square-foot children's play area and activity center was also attached to the tent. This was set up at each fair along with live entertainment and local station live broadcasts from the event. Health fair participants were provided a "Passport to Health" booklet to be stamped by the different sponsors once they had attended the booths. Passports were kept upon exiting the tent and will be used as a database for follow-up. Many of the food safety educational materials were translated into Spanish in order to disseminate and educate the Spanish-dominant community on their essential role in foodborne illness protection.

As a Hispanic initiative to reduce and eliminate disparities in health status among Hispanic populations, Food Safety Staff awarded a contract to Radio Unica to help provide effective communication about food safety issues and health risks that can be prevented. Launched in January 1998, Radio Unica Network is a leading source of news, sports, information, and entertainment radio programming in the U.S. Hispanic market. The health fairs were designed to provide a unique and highly targeted medium to give Hispanic consumers lifesaving information to establish lifelong habits that they can pass on. The network's programming lineup begins with live, 4-hour programs and airs newscasts four times an hour, 24 hours a day to promote each fair prior to our arrival in that particular city. Their national health awareness campaign is in partnership with the nation's largest retailer Wal-Mart. For more information, contact Irma Valencia Robison, Food Safety Staff, CFSAN at Irma.Robison@cfsan.fda.gov.

Listeria Research Grant Awarded to The National Center for Food Safety and Technology

The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded a $434,153 grant to The National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST), a collaborative research consortium consisting of FDA, academia, and industry. The 3-year grant will enable NCFST to develop control measures for Listeria monocytogenes, very harmful bacteria, in processed ready-to-eat (RTE) meats. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Iowa State University where the meat formulations will be prepared and irradiation treatments will be performed. The control of foodborne pathogens such as L. monocytogenes in processed RTE foods has become more urgent in recent years in light of various foodborne outbreaks and product recalls.

This project will investigate the survival of L.. monocytogenes in frankfurters and bologna following thermal, high pressure, and irradiation treatments, as well as each treatment in combination with approved chemical additives and/or natural antimicrobials. Approved chemical additives (e.g., sodium lactate and sodium diacetate), natural antimicrobials such as bacteriocins, and antioxidants (for irradiation treatment only) will be incorporated into meat formulations during the preparation of frankfurters and bologna. These meat products will be inoculated with L. monocytogenes and subjected to various temperature, pressure, and irradiation treatments. The survival of nutritionally starved L. monocytogenes when subjected to heat, high pressure, and irradiation treatments in frankfurters and bologna containing antimicrobials will be assessed. The inactivation kinetics and stress response of surviving microorganisms, as well as protein changes during heat and high pressure treatments (due to stress), will be analyzed using appropriate techniques such as two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. This research will aid in determining microbiological risks associated with traditional and emerging processing technologies applied to RTE meats, and provide processing guidelines to help reduce these risks.

Biosensor Technologies & Microbial Diagnostics Symposium

The Biosensor Technologies & Microbial Diagnostics Symposium, sponsored by the CFSAN Staff College, JIFSAN, CDC/NIOSH, and the University of Maryland's Department of Mechanical Engineering was held at the Harvey Wiley Federal Building on October 7, 2002. The symposium presented the development of biosensor technology and the use of cross-cutting methods to meet the challenges of ensuring food and environmental safety and security from microbial pathogens. The speakers, many active in biosensor development, included scientists from CFSAN, CBER, the Naval Research Laboratory, the University of Washington, the University of Maryland, the University of Kansas, the Ben-Gurion University, Israel, and Intrinsic Bioprobes, Inc. More than 120 scientists from FDA, University of Maryland, USDA, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and other organizations attended the meeting.