Promoting Food Safety at the Grocery Store

By: Krystal Register, MS, RDN, LDN, Senior Director, Health & Well-being, FMI

When we talk about food as medicine and the role that food plays in encouraging overall health and well-being, we need to also talk about the fundamental underlying idea of keeping food safe and promoting food safety for consumers. Across the industry, food safety experts work diligently and constantly to keep food safe for purchase and consumption, but what happens when we as consumers unload those groceries at home, and start to prep, cook and store them in our own kitchens? Recognizing the opportunity to carry food safety efforts right into the home kitchen, grocery stores are working to help shoppers learn and practice important food safety steps while cooking and handling food at home.

The Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE)  is a public health non-profit with the mission of reducing the risk of foodborne illness through effective education programs. PFSE works with the food industry, retail partners, the federal government, consumer groups, academia, and many health and food safety educators across the country to get the word out about how to handle food safely. FMI is a proud founding member of PFSE and has supported the organization for the last 25 years.  

This video spotlights how the grocery store is the ideal place for food and nutrition programs to help promote the importance of food safety. Food retailers, like Big Y, are utilizing the trusted expertise of registered dietitians in combination with resources from PFSE to provide safe food handling tips to their customers. Watch this video to see how Carrie Taylor, RDN, LDN, KYT, lead registered dietitian for Big Y and Andrea Luttrell, RDN, LDN, registered dietitian nutritionist at Big Y are partnering with Brittany Saunier, executive director for PFSE to help shoppers learn and practice important safe food handling practices – clean, separate, cook, chill.