The USDA's new food safety campaign reportedly cost $2 million and features eye-catching graphics and quirky TV ads. But in making food safety the responsibility of the public, does it miss the point?
The graphic above illustrates the main points of the campaign:
1. Clean: Clean kitchen surfaces, utensils, and hands with soap and water while preparing food.
2. Separate: Separate raw meats from other foods by using different cutting boards.
3. Cook: Cook foods to the right temperature by using a food thermometer.
4. Chill: Chill raw and prepared foods promptly.
The campaign's TV spots are memorably humorous, featuring a lobster chilling on a couch, a chicken facing off with a bunch of carrots, and a pig in a sauna. But as food politics expert Marion Nestle points out in The Atlantic, all of the concepts are about our responsibility for food safety.
But are most food safety issues caused by mishandling of food in home kitchens? Michael Batz, an expert at the Emerging Pathogens Institute, says no. He told GOOD magazine,
"[The] USDA’s consumer advice is helpful and those following these rules will certainly reduce their risk, but it’s important to note that many foodborne risks are largely outside of consumers' control, whether we're talking about how food is prepared in a neighborhood restaurants or the practices of farmers halfway around the world."
Read more:
• The USDA's Latest Food Safety Campaign: Pig-in-a-Sauna Edition at The Atlantic
• The 'Wacky' USDA Ad Campaign to Get You to Separate Your Meat and Veggies at GOOD
What do you think of this new campaign? Will it change the way you handle food at home?
Related: Ask Karen: USDA Food Safety Info on Your Phone
(Image: FoodSafety.gov)
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I'm sorry, but what the hell am I, five years old? Sigh. I understand that many Americans have the intelligence of a 4rth grader, but really - we deserve better for 2 million dollars. I could have prepared these in a few minutes using Word. And the recent listeria outbreak at Nature's Promise had nothing to do with kitchen habits.
I am glad for Emmi that she knows these basic rules. But I don't think everyone does. All the time I watch people playing fast and loose with food safety rules in their home kitchens, including my own husband! Just because my mother-in-law only cooks for five people -- and therefore can't cause a wide-spread food-borne illness epidemic -- does not mean she isn't doing dangerous things.
1. Clean - make sure that animals are not forced to wallow in raw sewage and stop spreading it on vegetable fields. Keep slaughter houses and processing plants free from vermin and contaminants. Also, dousing something in ammonia (beef industry, I'm looking at you) does not constitute "clean."
2. Separate - livestock from confined animal feeding operations and other cages. Separate farm workers and food from pesticides and other hazardous chemicals.
3. Cook - the gooses of big food companies who make food recalls "normal."
4. Chill - Give the cold shoulder to politicians who defend Big Ag and Big Food (and their big campaign contributions).
Yeah, regular people make idiot mistakes that cause food poisoning more regularly than most of us realize, but food-borne illnesses wouldn't be so worrisome if mega food companies didn't allow them to survive in the first place.
@Vintagejenta Love you comment ^_^
I think that while many of us know these things, there are a lot of people who don't and they are the intended audience for this campaign. We forget sometimes that not everyone has been educated about proper handling of food. So while the rest of you may turn up your noses at this campaign, I'm sure there are people out there learning something new and perhaps avoiding someone in their family getting a food borne illness.
To the folks who commented that not everyone knows the rule:
I agree - I did not know all the rules either until I became a regular cook. But answer this question: with all our problems in this country right now, are you happy that our government spent $2 million on graphics and dissemination that a 12 year old could have managed for ten cents?
While, clearly, food safety issues are something to be concerned about in commercial settings, it seems like educating people about how to keep food safe at home needs to be done in a more informative way. Sure, the graphic tells you the basics of what need to be done... but where are people going to go to figure out the specifics?
Also, anyone else think this new graphic is strangely similar in the ultra-simplistic design to the USDA's new "food pyramid" (or, plate, rather)?