Nearly 300 people already have signed up to take part in the inaugural webinar of the Fight BAC! Brown Bag Webinar Series, which will launch April 10th at 12:30 p.m. EST. Organized by the government-funded Partnership for Food Safety Education, the webinar series will first addresss food safety practices in home kitchens.
Dr. Christine Bruhn, a food science marketing specialist at University of California-Davis and director of the Center for Consumer Research, will present information from her recent observational study of home cooks and their food handling practices.
“I’ll be reporting on an observational study in which we video-taped 200 households as they prepared burgers and a salad in their home,” Bruhn told Food Poisoning Bulletin.
She’ll also discuss how people washed the salad ingredients and make suggestions for areas that health educators should stress to reduce risks of foodborne illness.
Bruhn is a heavily credentialed inaugural speaker who is currently involved in the USDA’s $25 million study project aimed at reducing the occurrence of and public health risks associated with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. Her part of the study involves a collaboration with North Carolina State University and Kansas State University to reduce health risks associated with undercooked hamburgers.
She also will be working directly with health care professionals to raise the number of food-handling messages for consumers who are at increased risk for food-borne illness., especially children, the elderly and people with diabetes.
Bruhn’s other interests include investigating consumer interest in the use of irradiation or high-pressure technologies to enahnce the safety of ground meat.
The webinar also will feature Kathy Bernard of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She will demonstrate tools you need to keep your family safe from food poisoning.
