May 25, 2000

For the third year, the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), in cooperation with FDA's Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), has funded grassroots food safety education projects proposed by FDA Public Affairs Specialists emphasizing one or more of the following:

• The Fight BAC!™ campaign materials developed by the Partnership for Food Safety Education
• National Food Safety Education Month (September)
• Populations at severe risk from foodborne illness (young children, older adults, immuno-compromised individuals)
• People of low literacy or who primarily speak languages other than English
• Safe handling and preparation of raw shell eggs and egg dishes

FDA Public Affairs Specialists, working in FDA field offices across the nation, submitted a wide variety of interesting and creative ideas. The following projects were funded:

• A bilingual train-the-trainer program for food safety education of approximately 300,000 Arabic individuals in the Detroit metropolitan area;
• Food safety (Fight BAC!) posters and egg safety fliers for southern California commercial food service operations in Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean;
• A train-the-trainer "Food Safety Begins At Home" program targeting adults and youths in under-served African American, Hispanic and Native American communities in Dallas, Houston and Oklahoma City;
• A food safety training program, including a video in Mandarin and Cantonese, for Chinese restaurant personnel in the Cleveland area;
• Development of education packets on Listeria monocytogenes for use in training health professionals working with at-risk populations, including pregnant women, in western New York;
• As island-wide campaign stressing egg safety targeting at-risk populations, food service and retail workers, and health professionals in Puerto Rico;

• A Food Pantries Fight BAC! Campaign serving low-income African American, Hmong and Hispanic populations in Milwaukee;
• Food safety and food allergy workshops in eastern and western Pennsylvania and in Delaware for hospital, nursing home, day care center and church food preparers;
• Development and publication of a food safety brochure for parents of infants starting to eat solid foods;
• Development and testing of methods for improved communication of food recall and food safety messages for at-risk populations;
• Fight BAC! Demonstrations targeted towards African American, Hispanic and East Asian communities in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens;
• A National Food Safety Education Month Fight BAC! Campaign for 4^th graders in rural, suburban an inner city schools in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana;
• Expansion of the train-the-trainer volunteer program for senior food safety education to cover the entire state of Florida;
• Food safety workshops for food preparers in nursing homes, meals-on-wheels programs and other elderly nutrition sites in Douglas County, Wisconsin;
• Development of tools for pre-K thru High School train-the-trainer Fight BAC! Campaigns in North Carolina.
• In-store and elementary school exhibits for National Food Safety Education Month and the Egg Safety Campaign in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina; and
• Expansion of the Fight BAC! Campaign for low-income consumers to include egg safety materials and to include Creole-speaking Haitians, English and Spanish speaking audiences in Florida.