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Ask Karen Help
Introduction
Karen (AskKaren.gov) is a virtual representative trained to answer your questions about the safe storage, preparation and handling of meat and poultry products. Karen can also answer questions about the prevention of foodborne illness and disease. Though this is not a live chat, please feel free to converse naturally with Karen. The more questions people ask, the smarter she will become.
Asking Questions
Type your question in the text box and select "Ask". The answer to your question will appear below the dotted line at the bottom of the page. If Karen is unable to answer your exact question she can suggest a list of related questions to help you meet your food safety needs. Karen can also provide links to other Web pages with additional information. Please remember that Karen has a difficult time answering compound questions, or questions with multiple parts. For the best results, keep your questions brief. Ask multiple concise questions in place of one longer one.
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Sample Questions
Not sure what types of questions to ask Karen? Here is a list of frequently asked questions to help get you started:
- Should I use a food thermometer when cooking meat?
- How long does food stay safe during a power outage?
- What are the safest ways to thaw foods?
- Should I use a wooden cutting board or a plastic one?
- How can I tell if chicken is spoiled?
- If food has mold, is it safe to eat?
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Question Categories
What subjects does Karen know best? The following is a list of the question categories that Karen is comfortable with. To know what specific questions Karen can answer within each category, type the category keyword in the question field. For example, upon typing "labeling" in the question field Karen lists the labeling-related questions that she can answer.
Additives
Allergens
Animal Care
Antibiotics
At Risk
Avian Flu
Bacon
Barbecue
Basic Food Safety
Be Food Safe
Beef
Biotechnology
Bison
Botulism
Brining and Marinating
BSE
Buying Food
Campylobacter
Canning
Certification
Chicken
Clostridium perfringens
Color of Meat and Poultry
Complaints
Cookware and Equipment
Corned Beef
Dating
Dioxins
Directives
Duck and Goose
E. coli
Egg products
Eggs
Export
Farm-Raised Game
Fire
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Fish
Flood
Food Safety Jobs
Food Safety Mobile
Food Security
Food Service
Food Storage
Foodborne Illness
Foreign Objects
Freezing
Frozen Breaded Poultry Products
FSIS
Giblets
Goat
Grading
Ground Beef
Ground Poultry
HACCP
Ham
Handling
Hormones
Hot Dogs
Import
Inspection
Internal Temperatures
Irradiation
Jerky
Labeling
Lamb
Leftovers
Listeria
Mail Order
Meat and Poultry Hotline
Meat Packaging Materials
Mechanically Separated
Microwave
Molds
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Nutrition
Organic
Other USDA
Outdoor Food Handling
Parasites
Partners
Pesticides
Pork
Power Failure
Product Recalls
Publications
Rabbit
Ratites
Recipes
Refrigerating
Research
Residues
Salmonella
Sausages
Shigella
Slow Cooker
Spoilage and Bacteria
Staphylococcus
Statistics
Take-Out
Thawing
Thermometers
Thermy™
Turkey
Veal
Volunteer
vRep
Washing Food
Water in Meat
West Nile Virus
Yersinia
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Contact the Meat and Poultry Hotline
For more information on this tool, please call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline, TTY 1-800-256-7072, or send an Email to mphotline.fsis@usda.gov.
Note to Macintosh Users: There is a known technical issue with Internet Explorer 5.5. If you are trying to run this
tool on a Mac, we suggest using the Firefox or Safari browser.
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Open Ask Karen in a New Window
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Last Modified: January 7, 2008
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