Food Safety Week Kick Off

Cross posted from the USDA blog

I’m very pleased and honored to be a part of Food Safety Week and contribute to our mission to protect public health. The USDA has been working diligently over the past year to improve food safety since the creation of the Food Safety Working Group. Part of our mission is to guarantee that we equip you with accurate food safety information. If it’s grilling outside for 4th of July, going to a ballgame, or just enjoying a summer night with your family, make sure that safe food handling is a part of your celebration. An easy way to prevent contaminated food is to use a food thermometer when grilling or smoking meat. Commonly, the color of the meat is wrongly used as a method for indicating whether or not the meat is cooked. However, using a food thermometer is the only way to determine the temperature of the food. What temperature should your food be? Check the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s website.

To kick things off we offered more food safety tips today for your Independence Day celebration here.

Also this week is a live Facebook chat on food safety tips on Thursday, July 1, at 1:00 PM EDT. You may submit any questions you would like answered before and during the chat at www.facebook.com/USDA.

I am proud to say the FSIS Twitter page currently has 49,000 followers. This tells me that many of you desire to know more about food safety, and encourages us to keep providing food safety information. Follow food safety tips on Twitter.com/USDAFoodSafety .

Please join us in our fight against foodborne illness and have a safe and happy summer.

Jerry Mande is the Deputy Under Secretary for the USDA Office of Food Safety