BEEF INDUSTRY TAKES ACTIVE ROLE IN ENSURING RESTAURANT FOOD SAFETY

DENVER (July 24, 1998) - As part of an overall industry effort to ensure a safe food supply, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is using checkoff funds to work with other foodservice organizations to improve the safe handling of food in restaurants.

NCBA is helping increase awareness that September is National Food Safety Education Month, a program developed by the International Food Safety Council of the Educational Foundation of the National Restaurant Association.

NCBA’s Foodservice Department will be distributing activity packets to state beef councils designed to help generate ideas for promoting National Food Safety Education Month. These activity packets help provide states the tools needed to increase awareness of food safety among foodservice professionals in their area.

The packets contain information for foodservice operators about how to conduct mini-seminars at their restaurants relating to this year’s campaign theme, "Keep It Clean." Seminar topics include maintaining personal hygiene; cleaning immobile equipment; washing cutting boards, utensils and surfaces; cleaning front-of-house areas; and handling garbage and solid waste.

Furthering its commitment to food safety, NCBA hosted the semi-annual meeting of the International Food Safety Council on Tuesday, June 23. NCBA is one of the founding sponsors of the International Food Safety Council, a restaurant and foodservice industry coalition committed to education about safe food handling and preparation. Meeting participants shared ideas for creating a broader awareness of the restaurant industry’s commitment to serving safe food and discussed ideas for making National Food Safety Education Month as effective as possible.

"It is critical that the beef industry take a leadership role in ensuring food safety in restaurants," said Ken Davis, a cow/calf producer from Leesburg, Ohio, and chair of NCBA's Foodservice Committee. "By working with other foodservice organizations, NCBA is extending the reach of checkoff dollars to communicate to restaurant chefs and operators how to cook with beef safely."

Through work conducted with checkoff dollars, NCBA has ensured that beef messages are included in all International Food Safety Council training and communication programs. The council’s ServSafe training program provides the restaurant industry with standardized food safety training and is well-respected by health regulatory bodies nationwide. The council also publishes Best Practices magazine, a quarterly publication for foodservice managers providing "how to" articles about proper food safety techniques.

– NCBA –

Beef foodservice food safety programs are part of the industry’s overall effort to improve food safety and are funded through the national beef checkoff, which is administered by the Beef Board. This 111-member board is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the collection of the $1-per-head checkoff, certify state beef councils, implement the provisions of the Federal order establishing the checkoff and evaluate the effectiveness of checkoff programs.

Initiated in 1898, NCBA is the marketing organization and trade association for America’s one million cattle ranchers and farmers. With offices in Denver, Chicago and Washington D.C., NCBA is a consumer-focused, producer-directed organization representing the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.