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"Serving Safe Food" Program for Restaurant Employees
| Name | Susan K. Hovey | | Situation | The Center for Disease Control reports that there are 76 million cases of food borne illness in the United States each year. Among those cases,
323,000 people require hospitalization and 5200 deaths occur. In South Carolina, foodborne illness outbreaks from restaurant facilities numbered approximately 100 in each year from 2002 - 2004, according to the data collected by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, and in one particular foodborne illness outbreak in 2005 in the Midlands Area, there were more than 50 people hospitalized and one death. | | Response | The South Carolina Hospitality Association requested that Clemson Extension develop a four-hour training class for restaurant employees which would be a condensed version of the National Restaurant Association's food safety training.
A county agent developed a Power Point lesson consisting of five
training modules: Basic Food Safety, Personal Hygiene, Receiving & Storing Food, Preparing & Serving Food, and Cleaning & Sanitizing. A graduate student in the Packaging Science Department at Clemson developed graphics for the Power Point modules. Funding was secured to offer scholarships for participants so that the registration fee of $25 would be waived. Fifteen participants in Spartanburg and Union Counties
participated in the pilot study. | | Impact | Knowledge gained by the participants was demonstrated by their successful completion of a multiple choice examination at the end of the four-hour class. All fifteen participants successfully passed the exam with 75% or higher.
These food service employees have a far-reaching effect on food safety. These fifteen employees were from four food service facilities. The four facilities serve a total of 400 people each day. In addition, the "Serving Safe Food" 4-hour class which was developed and piloted in Spartanburg and Union Counties was then copied onto CDs and made available to all county agents who teach food safety for use throughout the state.
Serving safe food to customers decreases the likelihood of foodborne illness, thus reducing medical costs and hospital visits. |
Last update8/19/2008
This website is maintained by Kim Dillard.
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