Alvin and the Chipmunks front food safety campaign
The series of public service announcements is a joint project by the USDA and the Ad Council in an effort to educate children and their families about how to prepare food safely, using footage from the upcoming film Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.
An estimated one in six Americans gets sick from food-borne illness each year, resulting in roughly 128,000 people in hospital and 3,000 deaths, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Children are among the most vulnerable to food poisoning because their immune systems are still developing.
The food safety campaign includes TV, radio, out-of-home and web advertising. “Young children are at a higher risk for food-borne illness and keeping them safe is a top priority for the Food Safety Information Service,” said deputy under-secretary for food safety Alfred Almanza. “These familiar characters offer USDA a great opportunity to communicate this valuable public health message in a way to get the attention of children and parents.”
The new campaign is an extension of USDA and Ad Council’s ‘Food Safe Families’ campaign, which aims to raise awareness about the risk of food-borne illness. The campaign advises the following four steps:
• Clean: Wash hands with soap and warm water before and after handling raw food. Clean all surfaces and utensils with soap and hot water. Wash all produce under running water before eating, cutting, or cooking.
• Separate: Use separate plates and utensils to avoid cross-contamination between raw meat, poultry, seafood and eggs and foods that are ready to eat (like already cooked foods or raw vegetables).
• Cook: Cook foods to the safe temperature by using a food thermometer.
• Chill: Chill foods promptly if not consuming immediately after cooking. Don’t leave food at room temperature for longer than two hours, or one hour if temperature is above 90°F.
