Food Safety Leaders Teach How to Properly Wash Hands for Global Handwashing Day, Oct. 15

An action everyone should take before preparing food

Non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education cues up food safety leaders for 

Global Handwashing Day recognition  

In celebration of Global Handwashing Day, Tuesday, October 15, the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education is working with health and food safety educators, K-12 educators and U.S. Federal agency liaisons to support people on the critical importance of handwashing to safely preparing food at home. 

A live online event, First We Wash Our Hands, will highlight what is known about the handwashing behaviors of consumers when preparing food, and will provide support and resources for health and food safety educators to engage millions of Americans on proper handwashing for good health. 

“Since research tells us people are not consistent or thorough when it comes to handwashing before eating or preparing food, this special day of focus will engage health educators, teachers, and parents on promoting handwashing practices that will reduce risk of illness from common germs like Salmonella and Campylobacter,” said Shelley Feist, executive director of the Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE). “These pathogens cause illness in thousands of children each year.”
 

PFSE calls on public health agencies, cooperative extension and family and consumer sciences educators to host watch parties and take part in the interactive event which will include handwashing demonstrations, new research on consumer behavior, and the announcement of a new national handwashing campaign from the CDC, Lifeis Better with Clean Hands. The campaign is designed to motivate adults to make clean hands part of their daily lives and encourages parents and caregivers to be hand hygiene role models for the children in their lives. The campaign’s health promotion materials include radio public service announcements (PSAs), posters, social media graphics, web banners and stickers in English and Spanish. 

To participate in the live event at 2 p.m. Eastern on October 15, 2019 register at this link.  The event is free.  CEU credits are offered.

The event will feature: 

Dr. Mindy Brashears

Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety

US Department of Agriculture

@USDAFoodSafety

Dr. David Berendes

Epidemiologist

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

@CDCgov

Glenda Hyde

Associate Professor

Oregon State University

@OregonStateUnivExt

Bruce Monroe Elementary School

Washington DC

Register now: http://bit.ly/2nT0YDV or get more information at: www.fightbac.org/events

Established by the Global Handwashing Partnership in 2008, Global Handwashing Day is celebrated each year on October 15 as a way to increase awareness and understanding of the benefits of handwashing with soap.  

In addition to resources at fightbac.org educators can access quality consumer education materials from these web pages of the U.S. Federal agencies:                                                                                                                                                                                         

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:  www.cdc.gov/handwashing/index.html

and www.cdc.gov/foodsafety

U.S. Food and Drug Administration:  Information on food safety, nutrition and health education campaigns https://www.fda.gov/food/resources-you-food/consumers

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service:  Food Safety Education page https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education
 

Follow the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education on Facebook at @FightBAC and on Twitter at @Fight_BAC.