Ah, spring! It's a time when people look forward to longer days, warmer weather and... yes, spring cleaning.

This makes it a great time to target harmful bacteria that lurk on kitchen surfaces and in the refrigerator. Your listeners may be interested to know that, according to a recent government survey of consumers, at least 20% of people don't wash their hands and kitchen surfaces before preparing food.

Educating your listeners about the four simple food safety steps can become a fun springtime promotion. The folks who developed the Fight BAC!® campaign want people to enjoy their food, not fear it. Proper cleaning is just one of the important steps to preventing foodborne illness.

Here are the four basic messages to safe food handling:

• CLEAN your hands, surfaces and utensils with hot, soapy water;
• COOK food to proper temperatures (hamburgers, for instance, to 160°F) and use a meat thermometer to be sure;
• CHILL meat, chicken, fish and perishables, and never eat anything that's been sitting at room temperature for more than two hours, or one hour when temperatures are above 90°F; and
• SEPARATE so you are not putting cooked food on the same plate or cutting board that previously held raw food.

Spring provides a perfect opportunity to coordinate a fun on-air promotion, with prize packages your listeners will love. I am extremely flexible and want to work with you to fit a promotion in any time this spring season according to your needs and inventory. One option, perhaps, could be to begin a two-week promotion around Easter or Passover, with an emphasis on the proper handling of eggs.

I can assemble "Fight BAC!® Spring Fling Prize Packages" consisting of: [list items here] as prizes for callers who either respond to food safety trivia (sample questions attached) or respond as the 10th lucky caller whenever the DJ plays songs with the word BAC! ("back") in the title (sample song listing is also attached).

In addition to a sample trivia quiz and song listing, I have enclosed information about the Fight BAC!® campaign, the four basic food safety messages and background on the Partnership for Food Safety Education, a national coalition of government, industry and consumer groups dedicated to helping consumers reduce foodborne illness. The Partnership conceived the Fight BAC!® campaign which is now in its third successful year.

I will contact you within the next few days to discuss ways we can partner together in a fun promotion to help your listeners keep food safe. Or, you can contact me at the number below if you have any questions or want to iron out details.

Thank you for your time and interest. [Call letters] is an institution around here and I look forward to working with you to help educate your listeners about the importance of food safety.

Sincerely,

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