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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Safe Food Handling

Goal: Improve food handling practices.

A person washes a yellow bell pepper under a kitchen faucet.

About 1 in 6 people in the United States get foodborne illnesses every year.1 Healthy People 2030 focuses on improving food handling practices to prevent foodborne illnesses.

Bacteria like Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella can grow in food that isn’t handled properly. People who eat contaminated food can get sick, and some even die. But foodborne illnesses are preventable.

Teaching people to use safe food handling practices during food production, processing, and preparation — at the home and retail level — can help prevent foodborne illnesses. Examples of safe food handling practices include washing hands, cleaning and sanitizing surfaces often, separating raw food from ready-to-eat food, using a food thermometer, and storing food at proper temperatures.

Objective Status

  • 0 Target met or exceeded
  • 2 Improving
  • 2 Little or no detectable change
  • 0 Getting worse
  • 4 Baseline only
  • 11 Developmental
  • 0 Research

Learn more about objective types

Related Objectives

The following is a sample of objectives related to this topic. Some objectives may include population data.

Foodborne Illness

Reduce infections caused by Listeria — FS‑03
Improving
Reduce infections caused by Salmonella — FS‑04
Improving
Reduce infections caused by Campylobacter — FS‑01
Little or no detectable change
Reduce infections caused by Shiga toxin-producing E. coli — FS‑02
Little or no detectable change
Increase the proportion of people who wash their hands and surfaces often when preparing food — FS‑07
Baseline only
Increase the proportion of people who use separate cutting boards when preparing food — FS‑08
Baseline only
Increase the proportion of people who cook food to a safe temperature — FS‑09
Baseline only
Increase the proportion of people who refrigerate food within 2 hours after cooking — FS‑10
Baseline only
Reduce outbreaks of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, Campylobacter, Listeria, and Salmonella infections linked to beef — FS‑D01
Developmental
Reduce outbreaks of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, Campylobacter, Listeria, and Salmonella infections linked to dairy — FS‑D02
Developmental
Reduce outbreaks of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, Campylobacter, Listeria, and Salmonella infections linked to fruit and nuts — FS‑D03
Developmental
Reduce outbreaks of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, Campylobacter, Listeria, and Salmonella infections linked to leafy greens — FS‑D04
Developmental
Reduce outbreaks of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, Campylobacter, Listeria, and Salmonella infections linked to poultry — FS‑D05
Developmental
Reduce the number of norovirus outbreaks — FS‑D06
Developmental
Reduce the number of food allergy reactions requiring emergency treatment — FS‑D07
Developmental
Increase the proportion of delis where employees wash their hands properly — FS‑D08
Developmental
Increase the proportion of delis where surfaces that touch food are properly cleaned and sanitized — FS‑D09
Developmental
Increase the proportion of delis where foods are refrigerated at a safe temperature — FS‑D10
Developmental
Increase the proportion of delis where hot foods are kept at a safe temperature — FS‑D11
Developmental

Other topics you may be interested in

References

1.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Foodborne Illnesses and Germs. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/foodborne-germs.html