Food Protection Trends - May 2009 - 289

wHAt’S HAPPeNING IN Food SAFety young 'Disease Detectives' Learn Lesson in Preventing Infectious Disease r. David Butler-Jones, Canada’s chief public health officer, has launched an educational program designed to help students learn about foodborne illnesses, how they’re caused and how to prevent the risk of infection. Students in a Grade 5 Winnipeg classroom became junior epidemiologists, or ‘disease detectives,’ in a mock outbreak of a mysterious illness causing many of their schoolmates to miss school. Through interactive play and online activities, Buffet Busters invites students to search for clues and uncover the cause of the illness, how it was transmitted, and how to prevent it. In the process, students learn how safe food-handling practices at home can prevent the spread of disease. “Creating healthy habits and practicing safe food handling starts at an early age. These students are learning an important lesson about the causes of food contamination and how to protect themselves and their families against infectious disease,” said Dr. ButlerJones. “This initiative shows how collaboration between the federal and provincial governments, health experts and educators can lead to the creation of innovative public health tools and resources that contribute to better health for Canadians and for our communities.” Developed to complement the Grade 5 curriculum on the maintenance of good health, Buffet Busters teaches kids how to protect themselves and others against foodborne diseases. The Buffet Busters education program includes a teacher’s guide, four animated outbreak scenarios and three classroom activities. Buffet Busters was developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory in consultation with the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, education consultants, educators and students in Manitoba. For more information on Buffet Busters educational program, visit the Web site at www.buffetbusters. ca. The guidance recommends that manufacturers obtain their peanutderived ingredients only from suppliers who use production processes that have been demonstrated to adequately reduce the presence of Salmonella, or that they ensure that their own manufacturing process would adequately reduce the presence of Salmonella. The guidance provides information that manufacturers should consider in evaluating their processes. The bulletin asks retail and food service operations to work with their suppliers to ensure that all peanut-derived products used as ingredients or sold as food have been manufactured and packed in accordance with current good manufacturing practice requirements. Retail and food service operations should take steps to ensure that their suppliers use production processes that have been demonstrated to adequately reduce the presence of Salmonella and should work with their suppliers to ensure that all peanut-derived products used as ingredients or sold as food are not subject to an on-going product recall. The guidance and bulletin are being issued in the midst of a large, ongoing, multi-state outbreak of consumer illness associated with consumption of food products containing peanut-derived ingredients produced by a single peanut processor. FDA will accept public comments on the guidance. Both the guidance and bulletin were posted on FDA's Web site (PeanutDerived Product Guidance, and Peanut-Derived Product Bulletin) and are scheduled to be published soon in the Federal Register. d FDA Issues Guidance on Safe Production of Foods Containing Peanutderived Ingredients he US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) has issued guidance to the food industry advising manufacturers that peanuts and peanut-derived products used as food ingredients pose a risk of Salmonella contamination, and recommending measures that manufacturers can take to address that risk for peanut-derived products received from their ingredient suppliers and for the products they themselves produce. CFSAN also issued a companion bulletin to operators of food-service establishments and retail food stores that offer food products containing peanuts and peanut-derived ingredients. t MAY 2009 | FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS 289

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Food Protection Trends - May 2009

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