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Step Up Against Foodborne Illness

Nonprofit emphasizes education and proper food safety culture as the means to reducing and preventing contamination.

Stop Foodborne Illness aims to get certain strains of Salmonella in poultry declared pathogens, following the same process it used to combat E.coli.
Stop Foodborne Illness aims to get certain strains of Salmonella in poultry declared pathogens, following the same process it used to combat E.coli.

Food safety is not only affected by supply chain, but it also can impact the entire supply chain. Occurrences span from contaminated water used in the field, to improperly cleaned machines between batches during processing, to consumers cutting lettuce with the same knife they had just used to cut raw chicken. A key part of the solution that these different audiences have in common is education.

Stop Foodborne Illness—a national public health nonprofit—not only advocates for effective food safety policies and regulations for food manufacturing, food handling, and food processing, but also emphasizes the need to improve food safety culture through education. According to the Centers for Disease. Control and Prevention, approximately 48 million, or one in six, Americans experience a foodborne illness annually with 128,000 of them needing hospitalization and 3,000 resulting in death.

“Stop delivers the ‘why’ in educating individuals about food safety by sharing real stories of severe foodborne illness. We explain that people lose their lives due to lack of food safety measures and food safety culture. Training and education are key to reducing the incidence of foodborne illness and specifically outbreaks due to poor handling of food,” says Mitzi Baum, chief executive officer, Stop. Baum, who is an adjunct instructor for Michigan State University’s online food safety program, is also a member of the International Association of Food Protection, the Conference for Food Protection, and the Association of Food and Drug Officials.

Two particular areas of concern are:

  • Produce and Poultry—there are many opportunities throughout the growing/raising, transportation, and delivery of products for mishandling, meaning that product may arrive at a processing plant already contaminated.
  • Frozen foods—maintaining the right temperatures throughout the supply chain until it is used by the consumer can prove difficult without proper cold chain technologies and handling.
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