Ensuring safe and secure food
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EmailMSU Extension efforts in ensuring safe and secure food lead to a healthy population, which in turn helps keep health care costs in check and our communities.
When you support MSU Extension’s efforts to enhance residents’ access to an adequate supply of safe, affordable food, program participants will focus on food safety measures in the field and at harvest, learn proper food preparation and food preservation techniques, and bring community partners together to strengthen access to healthy food supplies. This leads to a healthy population, which in turn helps keep health care costs in check and our communities viable.
Teaching Ogemaw Food Safety
The National Institutes of Health estimates that every year, 48 million people in the United States become ill and 3,000 die from pathogens in food. Causes range from outdated home food preservation practices to unsafe sanitizing practices at public events and small businesses. Since 2013, MSU Extension food safety and preservation programs have taught almost 10,500 Michigan residents safe food handling, food preservation and methods to reduce foodborne illness.
Participants include youth, nonprofit organizations that prepare food for the public and food preservers who want to create safe products for their small businesses.
Through face-to-face and online learning, Michigan communities receive high-quality, research-based education using U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines for safe food preservation.
Basics of food preservation
- Participants learn how to successfully and safely use a pressure canner for low acid foods, a water bath canner and a steam canner for acid foods.
- MSUE provided this course to 12 Ogemaw residents.
- Presented at the Grow and Grill program at the Tolfree Park. Presented freezer jam to youth and adults.
Michigan State University Extension Offers ServSafe, a national certification program for those working in food service, specifically manages and other leaders.
- The course teaches how to prevent foodborne illness and how to train employees about the latest food safety issues.
- 25 Ogemaw residents participated in this 8 hour class held at Michigan Works.
- 15 Whittimore school employees in the 8 hour course.
- They covered topic including: providing safe food, forms of contamination, the safe food handler, food safety management systems, safe facilities, pest management, and cleaning & sanitizing.
