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Food Safety and Nutrition
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The FDA/NSTA Symposium: Food Safety and Nutrition took place in room 303 of the
Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, MD, on Friday, November 3, 2006. Twenty-one
educators were in attendance, representing the states of California, Connecticut,
Delaware Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
The team of presenters included Dr. Mark Walderhaug, Camille Brewer, and Sherry
McGarry from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Shawn Eblen from Exponent,
and master teachers Mimi Cooper, Ken Bingman, and Elena Stowell. The symposium focused
on food microbiology, food processing, food epidemiology, the food label, the 2005
Dietary Guidelines, and the public health impact of food safety. NSTA would like
to thank all the participants and the presenters for a job well done!
The program started with an introductory administrative session during which Flavio
Mendez, Symposia and Web Seminars Program Manager at NSTA, familiarized participants
with the contents of their folders, including the agenda, the talent release form,
the pre-assessment form, and the session's learning outcomes. Shawn Eblen started
the program with a presentation about current issues in food safety. Eblen shared
some of the potential reasons for this increase of foodborne illnesses in the last
40 years, including, better detection methods, more complex food chain, globalization
of supply, and new unusual foods and food preparation. How do we protect ourselves
and our students from foodborne illnesses? Education and prevention is the primary
barrier to safeguard food safety, he explained. Washing your hands often, cooking
meals and storing food at the correct temperatures, and avoiding cross contamination
can prevent foodborne illnesses.
Camille Brewer followed Mr. Eblen's presentation with a talk about the food label.
The Food and Drug Administration, she explained, has a set of rules in place related
to food labels that all food producers must use. The label not only provides information
about the content of the package, but also includes recommendations of daily intake
for a balance diet. Consumers can make healthier choices by becoming familiar with
the contents of the food label on the products
they purchase. Ms. Brewer finished her presentation showing a preview of the new
FDA interactive learning program called: Making Your Calories Count. The program,
developed to help consumers plan a healthful diet while managing calorie intake,
has three chapters: (1) Size Up Your Serving & Calories; (2) See What's In It For
You; and (3) Judge If It's Right For You. Symposium participants enjoyed the guided
tour of the program and answered many questions available in it. Mimi Cooper followed
Ms. Brewer's presentation with a classroom activity that uses the food label. Teachers
worked in teams using empty food containers and packages to put together a healthy,
one-day menu. Teachers were asked to record the number of calories, trans fats,
sugars, vitamins, etc., for their menu. At the end of the activity the teams shared
their menus with the group and talked about the choices they and their students
make on a regular basis regarding food and nutrition.
After a delicious lunch, Dr. Walderhaug did a presentation about foodborne pathogens
and food science careers. In 1999, he said, the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
reported that an average of 5,000 people die every year due to foodborne pathogens.
Data from the CDC showed that one of the contributing factors to the spread of foodborne
pathogens included handling infected people handling food with their bare hands.
The presenter described the difference between food safety and food defense, while
the former is ongoing and tries to curtail unintentional events, the latter attempts
to protect us from intentional attacks to our food chain (terrorism). At the end
of his presentation, Dr. Walderhaug talked about careers in food science. He said
that most food scientists worked for the government at different levels, federal,
state, or local. He recommended that students interested in this field not only
learn about nutrition and food, but also mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology,
and information technology. After Dr. Walderhaug's presentation, Ken Bingman led
the audience in an activity where the participants had to detect bacteria in a liquid.
The activity, called Blue's the Clue, is one of several activities available in
the Science in Our Food Supply curriculum. In the activity teachers used an indicator,
methylene blue, to detect bacteria in milk. For the activity, participants had to
wear lab coats, gloves, goggles, and used laboratory equipment provided. The activity
teaches laboratory skills and the use of indicators as a technique to detect foodborne
pathogens in liquids.
The third and last set of presentations of the day focused on the topic of outbreaks.
Ms. Sherri McGarry talked about the FDA's emergency coordination and response. To
eliminate foodborne-related problems in the population, the FDA conducts both, surveillance
and outbreak investigations. To assist in the surveillance, networks of doctors
and local and state health officials collect and share information regarding signs
of potential outbreaks. Once an outbreak is identified, the CDC and the FDA get
involved. Agency officials are responsible for reviewing the epidemiological and
environmental data, implementing tracebacks of implicated foods, and removing the
product from the market. At the end of the presentation, McGarry talked about recent
outbreaks in the United States involving lettuce, spinach, and cantaloupe. Ms. Elena
Stowell followed McGarry's presentation with a role play activity about outbreaks.
In this activity students work in teams in the role of food science detectives asking
questions and following clues to discover the pathogen(s), product(s), and person(s)
involved in an outbreak. The activity is also part of the Science in Our Food Supply
curriculum developed by the FDA.
To conclude the symposium, participants watched excerpts of the video Dr. X, a fictional
scientist that uses special gadgets and his knowledge of food safety to "fight"
and prevent foodborne illnesses. All participants received a DVD of Dr. X. The video,
designed for classroom use, includes information about food safety practices that
can be implemented in school or at home.
Want to learn more about this symposium? Check out the photo gallery, browse the
program's agenda, and read the presenters' biographical sketches.
For more information contact symposia@nsta.org
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Underwritten in part by FDA |