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FEATURE SCRIPT – USDA Food Safety Camp
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INTRODUCTION: The U.S. Department of Agriculture has some food safety
tips to help with cooking at home. USDA's Bob Ellison has more.
Bob Ellison , USDA (voice-over):
Children at a Department of Agriculture food safety education camp near Washington, DC learned that harmful
bacteria can grow quickly on foods.
Child (looking though microscope): Ewww, gross!
Ellison (voice-over): But USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service experts were on hand to
help children and their families "Fight Bac" with four simple steps.
Four children (each says one): Clean! Separate! Cook!
Chill!
Richard Raymond, USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety: Teaching them to wash their hands before
and after handling raw meat, poultry products. Teaching them to separate raw meat from other products that
they'd be consuming, teaching them to cook to a proper temperature using a thermometer, and lastly to refrigerate
shortly after the food has been served.
Ellison (voice-over): Step one is to keep hands, utensils and surfaces clean. Step two is
separate: use separate plates and cutting boards, so juices from raw foods don't contaminate cooked foods.
Step three is cook to safe minimum internal temperatures: 160 degrees for ground beef and 165 for poultry.
Al Almanza, Administrator of FSIS: As long as all meat and poultry is cooked to the proper
temperature then we would see a drastic reduction in foodborne illnesses.
Juan Carlos Cruz, Chef: I mean we used to tell the temperature just by sticking your finger in
there, c'mon. Now you use a thermometer and it's a lot safer and safer for everyone.
Ellison (voice-over): Finally, keep foods chilled in a refrigerator, cooler with ice, or thermal
bag with freezer gels. And make sure it's at 40 degrees or below, when transporting food or when storing leftovers.
Dr. Raymond: Anything that you're going to cook — any raw meat that needs to be cooked —
you should not have that out of the refrigerator any longer than absolutely necessary. Then once it is prepared, you
should never leave it out longer than two hours maximum... If you don't know how long it has been out, I'd throw it out.
Ellison (voice-over): For more information, ask a food safety question online at
AskKaren.GOV, or call the USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888, M-P Hotline. For the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
I'm Bob Ellison. |
Last Modified:
November 14, 2007 |
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