Food Protection Trends - September/October 2019 - 390

Food Safety Information Sheet on Kitchen Thermometers (42). The resulting web-based survey was designed
to be used over Thanksgiving break as a way for students
to collect data on behalf of their families and the primary
meal-preparers in their homes. Data was collected through
the end of December 2016. Through their biology or family
and consumer sciences classes, students were provided
basic instructions on how to submit a picture of what their
Thanksgiving turkey looked like and were asked to provide a
view that showed the thermometer. No additional information related to intervening in practices was provided, so as
to keep the approach open ended and without specific direction, in the hope that this would provide a real-world look at
turkeys and thermometer usage in cooking turkeys.
Fifty-seven high school students volunteered to complete the survey over Thanksgiving break. Volunteers
were recruited through biology and family and consumer
sciences classes at Souderton Area High School, Souderton,
Pennsylvania, and through family and consumer sciences
(FCS) classes in North Carolina. Classes in North Carolina
were emailed the curriculum outlined in Fig 2. containing the survey through the family and consumer sciences
listserv, an application that allows for distribution of messages
to subscribers on a mailing list. Souderton Area High
School was recruited through partnerships and connections
through previous collaborative work. The 57 participants of
this study constitute a convenience sample. A five-question
survey was created using SurveyMonkey (San Mateo, CA)
focusing on the food safety topics of thermometer usage,
minimal internal endpoint cooking temperature, and indicators of doneness for whole turkeys (Fig. 1). Teachers were
provided the survey as part of the lesson plan. The survey
was distributed to students as a homework assignment to be
done over Thanksgiving break as a way for them to reflect
on what they had learned from the classroom lesson.

FIGURE 2. Food safety curriculum template for teaching
thermometer usage during cooking in home kitchens.

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Food Protection Trends September/October

Recruiting citizen scientists through a high school food
safety lesson
A food safety class lesson was developed using North
Carolina State University's family and consumer sciences lesson
template that focused on cross-contamination, minimum
safe internal temperature to which to cook meats, and correct
thermometer use. The template consisted of the following
components: the topic, the goals and objectives, the materials
needed, the grade level of the target student volunteers, the
time by which the lesson needed to be completed, and the
activities to be completed during the lesson (Fig. 1). The
objectives of the lesson were for students to (i) apply previous
knowledge on sanitation to new food safety principles such as
cross-contamination and cooking, (ii) understand how and
why cross-contamination can lead to foodborne illness, (iii)
practice safe handling of foods as the result of learning about
the importance of thorough cooking, and (iv) differentiate
between safely and unsafely cooked foods. The anticipatory

Food Protection Trends - September/October 2019

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