Looking Forward to World Food Safety Day by Looking Back

Stop Foodborne Illness Celebrates 26 Years of Food Safety Advocacy!

CHICAGO, IL, UNITED STATES, June 5, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- With the second annual World Food Safety Day on Sunday, June 7, 2020, the safety of our food will again become the nation’s focus – especially as the Coronavirus restrictions scale back and people look forward to gathering with friends and family again. For this nonprofit, however, every day is World Food Safety Day. Stop Foodborne Illness (STOP) is a national, nonprofit public health organization dedicated to the prevention of illness and death caused by foodborne pathogens. Every year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are 3,000 deaths and 128,000 hospitalizations caused by foodborne illness in the United States.

Foodborne illness is preventable with safe practices and precautions. According to STOP’s CEO, Mitzi Baum, “There are small, basic things every person can do—like washing their hands with soap and water before and after handling food—that can make all the difference in preventing illness from contaminated food.” For the past 26 years, Stop Foodborne Illness has promoted food safety awareness and assisted individuals and families impacted by foodborne illness.

In 1993, a deadly outbreak of E. coli drew nationwide attention to foodborne illness. Of the thousands sickened, four children died from E. coli. This is considered the “watershed” moment for food safety history. Stop Foodborne Illness (then called Safe Tables Our Priority, or S.T.O.P.) formed in 1994—consisting of the families affected by the 1993 outbreak—in an effort to increase awareness of foodborne illness. Through personal storytelling and advocacy, Stop Foodborne Illness was able to expedite legislation spearheaded with its partners in the Food Safety Coalition. Among other accomplishments over the past two decades, Stop Foodborne Illness catalyzed the passing of the Food Safety Modernization Act—rules designed to prevent contamination along the global supply chain for both human and animal food.

Today, STOP is led by Mitzi Baum, who has an extensive career advocating for food safety in the nonprofit sector. As the former Managing Director of Food Safety for the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization, Feeding America, Baum’s focus was on risk mitigation. “While awareness of food safety is growing, we know that nearly 50 million Americans get sick each year from foodborne illnesses. STOP can play a key role in influencing food safety culture among workers in the food industry and consumer habits. We’re working to reduce and prevent foodborne illnesses from occurring.” Stop Foodborne Illness is not alone in their mission; they partner with organizations such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Partnership for Food Safety Education, Keep Antibiotics Working, Safe Food Project, and the Safe Food Coalition.

This year, World Food Safety Day exists in the shadow of the global crisis of COVID-19, which has the media encouraging people to stock up on food necessities. Now more than ever, with tensions high and priorities scattered, Stop Foodborne Illness urges the public to use its website as a resource for food safety knowledge. The website, stopfoodborneillness.org/awareness, provides easily accessible and useful resources, such as:

1. Guidelines for safe cooking and food storage
2. Food recall alerts
3. Information on common foodborne pathogens
4. A comprehensive reference for foodborne illness symptoms, causes, and treatments
5. Fact sheets, teaching materials, and food safety resources by state
6. And more!

This World Food Safety Day, take some time to acquaint yourself with the resources Stop Foodborne Illness provides online. If our nation practices safe food preparation and storage, stays abreast of food recall alerts, and advocates for safer food worldwide, we will have reason to celebrate every month!

Stop Foodborne Illness is a national nonprofit public health organization whose mission is to support and engage people directly impacted by foodborne illness and mobilize them to help prevent illness and death by driving change through advocacy, collaboration, and innovation. https://stopfoodborneillness.org/ ###

Dori Wilson
Dori Wilson PR
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