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A. M. FRASER, Dept. of Family & Consumer Sciences, North Carolina State Univ., F-4 Ricks Hall, Box 7605, Raleigh, NC 27695-7605 Americans are eating more of their meals away from home, an estimated 54 billion meals in 2002 alone. One possible outcome of this shift to eating away from home is the increased incidence of foodborne illness originating from foodservice operations. Without proper training, foodservice workers could commit handling errors that could result in foodborne illness. Education and training are believed to be cost-effective options that can prevent foodborne illness. The foodservice industry though faces many challenges — high turnover rates, language/literacy barriers, and the public's demand for quick foods. All of these can affect the quality and frequency of training. In addition, many foodservice managers do not have the time, resources, or skill-level to provide in-depth food safety training to their employees. This situation is probably not as problematic within franchise operations because they often have access to corporate staff that can provide guidance, training, and resources free-of-charge. However, most small independent restaurants and many institutional operations have limited resources available to them for training. The Cooperative Extension Service (CES) is helping to meet this need, particularly for independent and institutional operations. Food safety education is a major focus area for the CES, a national system of popular and practical education that meets the identified needs of counties, communities, and individuals. Thus, nearly every state and territory CES has been actively training food handlers at small and large as well as commercial and institutional foodservice operations through low cost, high quality programs that are accessible at the county level. Offering training at the county level allows for the program to be tailored to meet the specific needs of the audience. Samples of Extension-sponsored training programs and materials, educational resources, Web sites, and research activities that target food handlers in the foodservice industry will be shared during this presentation.
Session 7, Outreach to the hospitality and foodservice industry
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