Is Your Food Safe?

The food that sits on your table, whether at home or at a restaurant, takes quite a journey before it gets there. It begins on a farm, ranch or orchard where it is grown or raised. In most cases, once it is harvested, it goes to a food processing and manufacturing plant, gets packaged and shipped, moves to a wholesaler, gets shipped again, and eventually ends up at a retail supermarket or restaurant, where it will be purchased and eaten.

Getting the food harvested and getting it to the consumer is a rather lengthy process. In fact, some produce travels from continents halfway around the world before it reaches the consumer. This poses the challenge of how to keep food safe and uncontaminated until it reaches its destination at retail and foodservice venues.

The U.S. retail food industry includes over one million establishments, and most of them must contend with the demands of shrinking budgets, international trade, new technologies, emerging pathogens, and changing consumer demands. These demands have created a need for increased collaboration and communication among retail food professionals.

“In our research, we have found that there is a gap in food safety information and practices when it comes to the retail-foodservice industry,” said Brian Nummer, Extension researcher at Utah State University.

Nummer and his colleagues in USU’s nutrition and food sciences department have recognized this need and have dedicated themselves to improving food safety in the food industry through communicating and collaborating with national health organizations and various universities about the problem.

“When it comes to food safety in the retail-foodservice industry, we have had so many people ask ‘where’s the help?’” said Nummer. “Food safety regulations focus so much on what operators cannot do, but we want to help communicate what practices operators can do to make food safer.”

Nummer’s group has established the Retail-Foodservice Food Safety Consortium to promote the application of science-based food safety principles in retail and foodservice settings to minimize the incidence of foodborne illness. Through networking, information sharing, and strategic planning of activities, the RFSC enhances the ability of food safety professionals to work more effectively with the retail food industry.

The RFSC consists of both food safety and academic members, including the National Environmental Health Association, the Association of Food and Drug Officials, International Association of Food Protection, Utah State University, Purdue University, University of Arkansas, Clemson University, and Rutgers University.

The consortium has four main objectives it seeks to achieve. The members want to enhance communication, identify food safety “best” practices, collect and share food safety resources, and identify retail food safety needs.

Members of the consortium also discuss other issues, including the needs of regulatory and health officials in the field, food safety resources and best practices, and research needs.

Nummer’s own research is specifically focused on creating a set of best practices to be used at the retail-foodservice level. Best practices are safe practices that retail food operators can implement into their food handling and preparation. Most recently, Nummer has been researching a safe rapid thaw process for chicken breasts.

“When you go to a restaurant, you don’t want to wait 30 minutes for your food to thaw before the chefs even start cooking it,” said Nummer. “That is why I have researched and created a flash thawing process to include in our best practices.”

With rapid thawing, frozen chicken breasts are placed in 135-degree water, which thaws the meat and starts the cooking process at the same time. He has also devised a safe way to cook the inside of gourmet, or thick, hamburgers by cooking them in a marinade instead of on a grill, where only the outside gets thoroughly cooked. These, along with other practices that Nummer and his colleagues have created, make up the best practices that are shared with retail-foodservice members at the annual roundtables.

“Through this research and the consortium, we hope to help the little establishments in the retail food industry,” said Nummer. “McDonald’s doesn’t need our help, but smaller retailers need somewhere to turn to for food safety information.”

Nummer and his colleagues are excited to see their research being put to use and shared through the consortium. They have created a website (http://extension.usu.edu/rfsc/), factsheets, “how-to” guides, and other resources to be disseminated at the yearly roundtables and to those who are in need of resources.

“We are some of the only ones working in the retail-foodservice industry to create resources for food safety,” said Nummer. “It’s up to us to do the research and fill the gap. I enjoy this research so much for that reason: I get to see my research used and applied in the real world—that’s my favorite part of Extension.”