IFIC Partner Spotlight: The Partnership for Food Safety Education

The Partnership for Food Safety Education is an organization that develops and promotes effective education programs to reduce foodborne illness risk for consumers. The Partnership works with an active network of 13,000 health and food safety educators—called BAC Fighters—helping to make their work more visible, collaborative, and effective. IFIC spoke with Britany Saunier, President, and CEO of the Partnership for Food Safety Education, just in time for National Food Safety Education Month. Why should food safety be top of mind in September? Food safety should be top of mind every day! Foodborne illness can be very serious and is more than a bad night in the restroom. For some it can mean lifelong chronic health conditions like IBS, arthritis, and, even worse, death. September is National Food Safety Education Month, which allows us to bring more awareness to the importance of safe food-handling in good health. Foodborne illnesses (FBI) tend to increase during the summer months due to the hot and humid weather. People can help prevent FBI during warmer months by making sure their fridge is maintaining a temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below, ensuring food is not left out for more than two hours (or for one hour if the temperature is above 90°F), and ensuring meat, poultry, eggs, and fish are cooked to a safe internal temperature. September is also back-to-school season. What are some tips on how to pack lunches safely for kids and teens going back to school? Great question, and together, the Partnership of experts and stakeholders have identified three practical tips for safely packing school lunches. They are as easy as 1: Wash; 2: Chill; and 3: Heat. What about after-school snacks and dinner, sometimes made together with our kids? The same principles apply, with some extra considerations: The Partnership has a task force […]

article

Cadmium Fast Facts

Putting Cadmium In Food Into Perspective: What You Need To Know  The presence of heavy metals in food is not new. Cadmium, like most heavy metals, is naturally occurring and can be detected at trace levels in food. Heavy metals are found in soil, water, and air; they are not added to food. While cadmium may be detected in some plant-based foods, exposure remains extremely low. Still, overexposure to cadmium can cause adverse health effects.    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the lead U.S. Agency for protecting the public from overexposure to cadmium in food. Initiatives like FDA’s Closer To Zero program are actively working to reduce exposure to cadmium and other heavy metals for all ages.  To reduce exposure to cadmium and other heavy metals through food as well as promote good health and nutrition, consumers should continue to eat a variety of nutrient-dense foods across and within the main food groups of vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, and proteins.   What Is Cadmium?  Cadmium is a naturally occurring element found in low concentrations in soil and rocks, air, water, and food. It can also be released into the environment through industrial activities like mining and manufacturing. How Are Consumers Exposed To Cadmium?  Cadmium exposure primarily occurs in workplaces producing cadmium products. People can be exposed to cadmium in occupational settings, such as smelting and demolition, and in factories that manufacture batteries and electronic plating. For smokers, smoking is the primary source of exposure to cadmium.  Cadmium can accumulate in plants grown in contaminated soil or animals exposed to cadmium in water. This is true whether foods are grown in a backyard garden, grown organically, or purchased at a grocery store. Foods most commonly containing cadmium in the U.S. include leafy greens, cereal grains (e.g., wheat, rice, oats), potatoes, nuts, […]

article

The Players & Pathways To Packaging Sustainability Wins

After years of working in the food production space, it’s clear that food producers and consumers alike want to know more about how their actions can contribute to—or compromise—our roles as environmental stewards. For years, U.S. consumers have heard the mantra “Reduce, reuse, recycle,” and many of us, no matter where we live, do our best to decrease litter and reduce waste. While we are considering our individual environmental sustainability actions, many of us also recognize the importance of efforts being enhanced within the domestic food production industry to improve rates of recycling food packaging and reduce the amount of materials needed to produce new packaging. When thinking about enhancing packaging sustainability efforts, both consumers and industry have a role to play. The Path To Packaging Recycling Wins To better understand the packaging recycling pathways and how we can increase our “wins” in packaging sustainability, we must recognize the roles of three key players. First, there are the companies that manufacture materials needed to make packaging. Next there are companies that produce foods and beverages and utilize those materials to hold their products. Then there’s the consumers who buy packaged goods, and who may or may not recycle that packaging. While the companies that manufacture packaging materials and produce our foods and beverages hold a great deal of power in helping us achieve sustainability wins, consumers play a key role in closing the sustainability loop by recycling or choosing their purchases. Consumer Insights Are Key To Making The Right Plays Over the past decade, the annual IFIC Food and Health Survey has shown that taste, price, and healthfulness are the top characteristics consumers care about when making a food or beverage purchase. While environmental sustainability has historically been a lower-ranked purchase driver, the past several years have shown a shift […]

insights

Fridge and Freezer Safety Tips

July is National Ice Cream Month, and sure enough, July’s hot days often see many of us searching our freezers for frozen treats. As we all know, freezers also house many other foods and beverages that require very cold temperatures to prolong their freshness. But how often do we think about how to properly store our cold and frozen food safely? It’s easy to take our refrigerators and freezers (and the work they do) for granted, but familiarizing ourselves with some important fridge and freezer safety tips can help us better preserve the taste and integrity of our cold and frozen foods in addition to avoiding foodborne illness caused by microbes and preventing food waste due to spoilage. What’s the best temperature to maintain in a freezer? We should all periodically check the temperature of our refrigerators and freezers with a special appliance thermometer. Many modern appliance versions have a built-in thermometer that display internal temperatures and sound an alarm if a temperature begins to change. For a quick reference, you should keep your refrigerator at 40 °F or below and your freezer at 0 °F or below. Ensuring proper temperatures in your refrigerator and freezer helps support food safety as well as maintain taste, freshness, and the cooking reliability of your perishable foods and beverages. In addition, proper storage supported by correct temperatures in your refrigerator and freezer helps avoid food waste. Improperly stored food can spoil quickly and thus need to be discarded earlier than if it had been stored correctly. The refrigerator and freezer storage chart found in this tip sheet provided by the Food and Drug Administration includes safe storage times for many widely used foods. In addition, the FDA advises that all food should be examined for spoilage regardless of the dates on the packaging. […]

insights

Tips for Parents of Picky Eaters

“What’s for dinner?” It’s a question you may hear weekly (or even daily!) if you’re a parent of young children. But depending on the individual tummies and appetites in your home—here’s looking at you, kids—the answer may not always be clear. How can parents of picky eaters tackle dinner as well as other meals, including snacks? Let’s start by noting that there isn’t a hard and fast definition of a “picky eater”, but generally can be defined as someone who consumes an inadequate variety of food through rejection of a significant amount of both familiar and unfamiliar food. Picky eaters can vary in age, but “picky” behaviors, especially refusing to eat certain foods (no matter how many ways a parent tries to convince the child to take a bite), usually start around age two—right around the time children begin forming food habits that include likes and dislikes. And because a toddler’s early eating habits and preferences can sometimes last well into adulthood, it’s essential to help your little one develop a palate that includes a variety of healthy foods. There are many perspectives when it comes to helping picky eaters broaden their food horizon, but getting your child on board with diverse, nutritious meals may take a few different strategies, so we’ve rounded up a few for you to try: Finally, as you prepare for your next meal, keep an open mind. Getting your children to consistently try and eat a variety of foods can be difficult. Stay firm, calm, responsive, and loving, and it will get better!    

article

Sesame: The Next Major Food Allergen?

Ahh, sesame. We all know those pale, tiny seeds that sit on top of hamburger buns, speckling them with bursts of flavor and texture. But sesame is used for much more than making your buns more fun. It is also used in other popular, everyday dishes. You can find sesame in hummus as a smooth paste called tahini or as a mouth-watering finishing oil used in Asian-inspired dishes. In the news Sesame has been on the tip of everyone’s tongue recently—not only as a food ingredient, but also as a topic of conversation. Recent studies suggest that nearly 1.5 million Americans could have a sesame allergy. If so, this leaves 0.49% of our population at risk of an allergic reaction to sesame-containing foods. Food allergy symptoms can range from mild skin irritations and hives to life-threatening anaphylaxis. Increased attention to sesame allergies may leave you wondering if sesame should be labeled as the ninth most common food allergen in the U.S. Should processed foods include warning labels for foods containing this popular ingredient? Should restaurants and retail establishments inform you about the presence of sesame in your meal? The state of Illinois seems to think so. New state regulations for sesame Unlike the Big Eight, the FDA does not currently recognize sesame as a major food allergen nor require it to be labeled as an allergen on food labels. In time, this could change. Illinois recently became the first U.S. state to require sesame allergen labeling. This decision makes Illinois the first and only state in the U.S. to require sesame to be labeled as an allergen. Such labeling already is required globally in Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. These regulations are due in part to the fact that sesame-containing foods are widely consumed in these regions, resulting […]

article

International Food Information Council Expands Food, Nutrition & Agriculture Expertise To Advance Its Mission, Serving The Public Good

IFIC Welcomes New Board of Trustees and Milton Stokes, PhD, MPH, RD, FAND as IFIC Senior Director, Food & Nutrition  (Washington, D.C.) — The International Food Information Council (IFIC) recently expanded its team and confirmed a new slate of Trustees to further strengthen its food, nutrition, and agriculture expertise as well as guide and execute its new strategic vision. IFIC is led by a public-private Board of Trustees comprised of academic and food industry leaders with expertise in nutrition, food safety, risk communications and biotechnology, along with government liaisons. The majority of IFIC’s Board is comprised of independent academic researchers.   As a food-focused research and educational nonprofit under new executive leadership, IFIC is set to release new consumer behavioral research and insights; enhance its science communication capabilities, including its digital and social media platforms; and broaden its multi-sector stakeholder engagement partnership platform this year. IFIC remains proactively invested in the mission-driven priorities most necessary and valuable to support multiple stakeholder needs, including those of consumers, in making informed food decisions.  “IFIC’s mission is to effectively communicate accurate and actionable information at the intersection of science, food, and the consumer,” said IFIC President & CEO Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak, MS, RDN. “Through best-in-class consumer research, science communications and convening thought leadership, we look forward to working with our Trustees to advance the food systems dialogue and science-based decision-making.”   At the December 2023 Annual Meeting, IFIC confirmed the following Board of Trustees:   A full list of IFIC Trustees and Public Liaisons can be found here.   Additionally, IFIC named Milton Stokes, PhD, MPH, RD, FAND as Senior Director, Food & Nutrition. Stokes will lead the organization’s food and nutrition strategy in support of its mission to effectively communicate science-based information on food safety, nutrition, and sustainable food systems.   A registered dietitian and communications professional, […]

Media

A Closer Look at Meat Safety During COVID-19

Summer may be grilling season, but while we’re in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us are looking to buy and cook food and host gatherings in different ways. World health authorities are putting an emphasis on safe food handling (which includes frequent hand washing), social distancing, and mask wearing. All of these practices are noted as being potentially helpful in minimizing germ transfer, including transmission of the novel coronavirus. Still, while we look to plan meals, many of us may also be concerned about the safety of the meat that is on the shelves in our local markets. Or, we may wonder about the safety of the meat dishes on menus at our favorite drive-thru or takeout places. If your “meat-inquiring mind” wants to know more about how safe our meat supply is, read on. Food safety regulators speak out In the midst of the pandemic, many media outlets have been reporting on the health status of farmers, ranchers and meat-processing-facility workers. With this news coverage, questions have arisen about the novel coronavirus being transferred to consumers via meat products and packaging. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the World Health Organization, and many other international health organizations have affirmed repeatedly for many months that the coronavirus is not transmitted to people via food products, and their confidence includes foods that may have been handled by potentially infected food system workers. The primary method of transmission of the coronavirus is via person-to-person contact that promotes the spread of respiratory droplets (the body’s carrier of the coronavirus). The FDA’s most recent statement (issued on June 24, 2020) notes, “The United States understands the concerns of consumers here domestically and around the world who want to know that producers, processors and regulators are taking every necessary precaution to […]

insights