The Big Picture
Time: One 45-minute
class period
Activity at a Glance
This activity introduces
students to food safety. It includes information about the number of
people affected each year, the 4 Cs of food safety, the Farm-to-Table
Continuum, who's responsible for keeping our food safe, and the link
between food safety and science. The topic is launched by letting the
students relate food safety to the foods they like to eat, such as hamburgers,
orange juice, and salad. As the end of the activity, the Dr. X and
the Quest for Food Safety video- Module 1 Understanding Bacteria-
is shown to set the stage for the discussion of bacteria and their role
in food safety.
Food Safety Connection
Food safety is everyone's
responsibility- everyone involved in growing, processing, transporting,
and handling our food along all the points in our complex food distribution
system. This responsibility includes all of us as we purchase, prepare,
and eat our food. Students need to understand that food safety is a
very serious issue that affects the well-being of every individual.
Because everyone must eat, we're all at risk of becoming ill if food
becomes contaminated.
GETTING STARTED
Advance Preparation
- Set up a hot
plate and skillet to cook the hamburger as students enter the room.
Have a glass of orange juice and a salad sitting on your desk.
MATERIALS
For the Class
- A hamburger,
glass of orange juice, and a salad. Option: Use pictures or food
models
- Hot plate or
skillet, and spatula
- U.S. Food
and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition/National
Science Teachers Association-Food Safety A to Z Reference Guide- Food
Safety From Farm-to-Table at http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/a2z-toc.html.
- Dr. X and
the Quest for Food Safety video, Module 1- Understanding Bacteria.
Introduction
As students walk in, be
cooking a hamburger to entice their senses. Other options are to post
a large picture of the food in a conspicuous place, use food models,
or dress up as a waiter/waitress. You can wear an apron and have a
pad and a pen readily available for taking your student's orders. As
the students come in, let them comment on the food. Don't give them
an explanation. Let the atmosphere stimulate their curiosity.
Can I Take Your Order?
- Walk up to one
student and ask: Can I take your order, please? How do you like
your hamburger? What would you like on your salad? Take 2 or
3 more orders and write them down. Then ask students (if they haven't
already asked you): What do you think the hamburger, orange juice,
and salad have to do with science?
- List their answers
on the board, then ask: Which of the foods would you most like
to eat? What do you want on it? Is there anything that might be
on the hamburger, in the orange juice, or in the salad that you didn't
order? You may have to give them a few hints. Hopefully, someone
will mention bacteria. Then say: Aha! You have your first clue
to the connection between these foods and science!
- Now ask: Have
you or has anyone you know ever become ill from eating food? Encourage
students to express when? what?, and where? How could you get
sick from a hamburger, orange juice, or a salad? (You can get
sick if harmful bacteria are present in the food.)
Procedure
Use the following exercise
to emphasize how prevalent foodborne illness is, to help students realize
the seriousness of this issue, and how it relates to them.
- Ask students:
How many of you have been affected by foodborne illness?
Write that number on the board. Now compute what percentage
of the class thinks they've had a foodborne illness.
- Using that percentage,
ask them to estimate how many students in the entire school might
have had foodborne illness. Note: Tell the students that this
is only an assumption, and not an actual survey. This information
is simply to help the students relate to the statistics that you are
about to give them.
- Present this
information on the board: there are approximately 274 million people
in America. If 76 million people become sick due to foodborne illness,
ask the students to calculate the percent of the population affected.
Discuss the students' reactions to this percentage and have them relate
it to the percentage calculated for the class. Then reiterate the
importance of studying food safety.
- Let the students
form the following 3 teams- Team Hamburger, Team Orange Juice, and
Team Salad. Then ask: How do you think the hamburger, orange
juice, or salad got to you? Let them brainstorm for about 10
minutes and list their ideas. This provides background information
for the upcoming Farm-to-Table Continuum found at www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fttfarm.html
in the Food Safety A to Z Reference Guide.
- Show students
the Food Safety Farm-to-Table illustration at http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fttfarm.html.
Let them cross-check their lists with the Farm-to-Table Continuum
found at www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fttfarm.html.
They may include even more steps and that's good!
- Now ask: Whose
responsibility is it to keep this hamburger, orange juice, and salad
safe from harmful bacteria? Hopefully, the students will
come up with “it's everyone's responsibility”, including their
own once the food is in their possession. Discuss the reasons we
all play a role in protecting our food supply.
- Inform the students
of the following facts: Did you know that in 1999, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that there were 76 million
illnesses caused by foodborne illnesses; 325,000 hospitalizations;
and 5,000 deaths? (Allow a few minutes to discuss the magnitude
of these numbers.)
Tune in to Understanding
Bacteria
Introduce the video by
explaining: There's a lot of science behind keeping our food safe.
Throughout this unit, you'll become food scientists and conduct experiments
and research projects. Let's meet Dr. X, a crusading food scientist
who's dedicated his life to fighting harmful bacteria and foodborne
illness, and Tracy, a student working on her science video project,
which teams up with him on his mission. I challenge you to uncover
the following food safety science links as you watch the video:
- What 4 weapons
does Dr. X use to fight harmful bacteria?
- What is the
significance of the mysterious O157:H7?
- What is Dr.
X referring to when he talks about the “baddest of the bad”?
- What does
DNA have to do with bacteria? What does it tell us?
Tell the students: You'll
be conducting experiments and doing further research on many of the
things you'll see in the video, so pay close attention! Show video
Module 1- Understanding Bacteria (time: 15 minutes).
Time to Review
and Summarize
- Dr. X talked
about his 4 food safety weapons for fighting harmful bacteria: what
are they? (Clean, cook, chill, and combat cross-contamination.)
- What's the
significance of O157:H7? (E. coli O157:H7 is one kind
of E. coli that causes foodborne illness. E. coli O157:H7
evolved from the harmless E. coli bacterium.)
- Dr. X described
the “baddest of the bad”; what was he referring to? (The 12 Most
Unwanted Bacteria that cause foodborne illness.)
- What does
DNA have to do with bacteria? (DNA encodes the information that
enables bacteria to grow, reproduce, and cause illness.)
- What does
DNA tell us? (When there is an outbreak of foodborne illness,
epidemiologists use the pathogen's DNA fingerprint to determine the
source of the bacteria.)
- What does
science have to do with food safety? (Food safety has everything
to do with controlling bacteria. There are all kinds of scientists
dedicated to developing methods to keep our food supply safe.)
- Whose responsibility
is it to keep our food supply safe along the Farm-to-Table Continuum?
(It's everyone's responsibility.)
- What effect
does each of the 4 C's have on bacteria? (Cleaning removes bacteria
from hands and surfaces. Cooking (heat) kills bacteria by breaking
down their cell walls. Chilling slows down the bacteria's metabolism,
thus slowing their growth. Combating cross-contamination prevents
the spread of bacteria from one thing to another.)
Summary
It's everyone's responsibility
to control the spread of bacteria- from the farmer, the food processor,
the person who transports our food, people who work in supermarkets
and restaurants, and consumers when they take the food home.
Extensions
- Check the internet
to learn more about when and why food safety became a national initiative.
- Collect articles
on food safety from your local paper and television news reports,
and write a report on local food safety issues. Post articles and
reports on the class bulletin board.
- Check out the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied
Nutrition/National Science Teachers Association- Food Safety A to
Z Reference Guide, particularly the 4 Cs section at http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/a2z-toc.html.
- Survey people
in your class/grade/school/faculty to find out how many of them may
have experienced foodborne illnesses.
Career Connection
Resources
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for
Food Safety and Applied Nutrition/National Science Teachers
Association- Food Safety A to Z Reference Guide at http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/a2z-toc.html.
See the comprehensive list of terms- bacteria, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, deoxyribonucleic acid, Escherichia coli
O157:H7, Farm-to-Table Continuum, foodborne illness, Four Steps
to Food Safety, pathogen, pH.
- Dr. X and the Quest for Food Safety video
Module 1- Understanding Bacteria.
Websites
Go to: www.scilinks.org
Code: FS300
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