Arlington, Va. —The non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) works tirelessly to raise awareness on how foodborne illness can be prevented. That’s why PFSE is excited to announce that a record number of Partners have joined them to increase public awareness of safe food handling.
“I think we’re seeing great enthusiasm around the idea of the chain of prevention as a shared responsibility with consumers,” said Kathy Means, CAE, chairman of the Board of PFSE and vice president of Demand Creation & Consumer Affairs with the Produce Marketing Association.
“Supporting consumer education through a charitable donation to PFSE is an important way for a company, commodity or professional association to highlight its core values around health and food safety.”
Contributing Partners provide year-round funding that allows PFSE to serve consumers with a leading website (www.fightbac.org) and downloadable, science-based tools. Funding also supports a network of health and food safety educators with free events and other support for their community-based work in food safety education.
Each year, an estimated 48 million Americans are affected by foodborne illness (CDC). Certain people are at increased risk of hospitalization and for potentially life-threatening conditions (CDC). Children under the age of fifteen are the most likely to get sick from food poisoning (CDC).
The following organizations have joined forces to elevate basic safe food handling and hand hygiene practices in the United States (in alphabetical order):
- Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
- American Frozen Food Institute
- Association of Food and Drug Officials*
- Cargill, Inc.
- Center for Food Integrity
- Chipotle Mexican Grill
- Conagra Brands
- Consumer Federation of America*
- FoodLogiQ
- Food Marketing Institute Foundation*
- International Association for Food Protection
- International Dairy-Deli-Bakery Association
- International Food Information Council
- Instacart
- McDonald’s Corporation
- Meijer, Inc.
- National Association of Convenience Stores
- National Chicken Council*
- National Grocers Association
- National Pork Board
- National Restaurant Association
- National Turkey Federation
- North American Millers’ Association
- NSF International
- Produce Marketing Association*
- Publix Super Markets Charities
- Refrigerated Foods Association
- Sysco Corporation
- Tyson Foods, Inc.
- United Fresh Produce Association
(*denotes a founding Partner)
Passion for consumer food safety education has been the secret to the Partnership’s growth. PFSE celebrated a number of successes in the past year:
- Launch of the Safe Recipe Style Guide in March 2019, a systemic approach based on observational data showing that safe food handling prompts in recipes lead to adherence to safe food handling practices at home
- Reached more than 150,000 households with young children in three months with information on safe handling of bottles and baby food
- The Story of Your Dinner campaign reached over 205 million consumers during the 2018 holiday meal time season
- The flagship website, www.fightbac.org experienced nearly 2 million visitors
- Safe poultry handling messages reached 1.2 million consumers through the “Don’t Wing It” campaign
- Featured article in Diabetes Forecast magazine reached 6 million readers
“Non-profit organizations rely heavily on engaging partners to be as effective as possible in improving the lives of individuals. The non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education is honored to be supported by such passionate organizations representing the food industry, scientific associations, nutrition and consumer groups,” Means said.
For more information visitwww.fightbac.org, or contact Britanny Saunier, 202-688-3260×3 or bsaunier@fightbac.org.
About the PFSE
The non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education is the originator of science-based food safety messages and the national leader in developing and disseminating information around the linkage of food safety consumer education with positive health outcomes. Food safety and health educators, and consumers, can download free food safety education information from the Partnership’s website at www.fightbac.org. The Partnership is the creator and steward of the popular Fight BAC!® national food safety education campaign.
