U.S. AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT ISSUES GRANT TO CLEMSON

DATE: 11-9-02

CONTACT: Libby Hoyle, (864) 656-3230 lhoyle@clemson.edu

WRITER: Peter Kent, (864) 656-0937 pkent@clemson.edu

CLEMSON -- Clemson University will receive $573,029 in grant money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund a project that will develop educational programs and identify unsafe food safety behaviors. The grant is a part of a $14.2 million dollar USDA plan, consisting of 40 integrated food safety research, education and extension projects.

The grant was awarded to a Clemson team led by professor Libby Hoyle in packaging science through the National Integrated Food Safety Initiative, a program administered by the USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Services.

"Hoyle's project funded by the grant includes three integrated parts of food safety," said Susan Barefoot, associate dean for Public Service Activities at Clemson. "The three parts include teaching, research and outreach in food safety. The teaching aspect of the project will develop and deliver a course by distance learning to assist managers in retail food to be food safety trainers. The research aspect examines how microorganisms are transferred onto food. And the outreach part of the project develops educational materials that benefit non-English-speaking groups and provides educational programs for food service and food retail mangers to assist them in training their employees."

The project also is part of a three-state collaboration that includes support for educational activities in Georgia and North Carolina. The food safety measures are directed toward the retail food industry in these three states.

"The project will set up programs to certify retail food managers to train their food-handler employees with materials based on the ServeSafe curriculum of the National Restaurant Association. Concepts include storing, cooking, and cooling foods at proper temperatures, avoiding cross-contamination between foods or contamination from unclean hands or surfaces, good personal hygiene of food workers and other key food safety concepts," Barefoot said. "The grant will ensure that Clemson will be a continuing leader in making sure that food eaten by consumers is safe."

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