Over-communicating and making sure that all can see the vision of the group is paramount.
The retail food safety subgroup will convene members who specialize in technical food safety expertise for the food retail industry. Sharing resources and expertise will help each state in the network improve their ability and efficiency in supporting retail food safety. We also want to have a larger academic presence in national organizations such as the Conference for Food Protection and the Association of Food and Drug Officials. Entrepreneurs starting home-based food busi- nesses often don’t understand food science or sanitation principles involved in preparing food for sale. How will you support this audience? We plan to develop a network of members who specialize in this area to offer technical assistance to cottage food business owners. While cottage laws vary from state to state, basic sanitation practices and food science principles apply to all cottage food producers. Sharing resources will help each state develop training and resources to build their state-specific cottage law training programs.
—Ben Chapman, Food Safety Extension Specialist, North Carolina State University
need to be updated with information on the latest technolo- gy and research, which will require validating the safety of new tools and equipment.
A meeting of some of the Food Safety Extension Network educators at the University of Georgia, in June 2022.
The retail food industry faces many food safety challenges—including high rates of staff turn- over, language barriers, and a lack of knowl- edge about regulations. How will the Network help the industry meet these challenges? We will develop educational resources and provide training related to specialized processes—such as fermenting kimchi in a restaurant—and variances, retail HACCP (hazard anal- ysis and critical control points), food safety culture, school and child nutrition programs, online food sales, foods not for sale, as well as current trends and emerging issues in food safety. We also want to connect local expertise to local regulators and local industry, as these groups lead the regu- latory landscape in food safety. While academic/Extension folks have been valued in these areas, those who have been super active are beginning to leave and we want to help reinject academic expertise in these settings.
How did this second round of NTAE funding help your team? Our group has really benefited from the consistent monthly check-ins, mentorship, and network expansion. We hope that the program will help us take the concept to imple- mentation and provide a robust foundation for long-term sustainability.
and Agriculture—mainly by inviting staff and program leaders to listen, ask questions, and provide input. This has opened up doors to communication and made us stronger as a network.
Your program is an example of how Extension has widened its focus. How is your team work- ing with university leadership in a creative way to accomplish this? We’re working with college administrators (across many institutions) to increase the visibility of consumer food service and in-home food businesses and to emphasize the importance of these issues on public health and the econ- omy. We are considering, for example, how to get in front of consumers through traditional media, social media in the foods and nutrition spaces, as well as through communi- ty-based networks that Extension is already a part of. How will the Network serve home cooks who want to learn to preserve food safely? By curating information from existing publications, collecting relevant data, identifying safe recipes, as well as validating recipes that lack the data to support them. Our content will reflect trends such as low-sugar jams and jellies, the use of glass-top ranges, and the renewed pop- ularity of fermentation—along with popular new tools like electric pressure canners and home freeze dryers. Recipes
What’s next for FSEN?
What have you learned this year that surprised you?
The FSEN members want to create a shared library of re- sources, provide support for agents and specialists through unique training opportunities with subject matter experts from member institutions, and offer opportunities for institutions to add value to their existing programs. ■
That it’s of the utmost importance to keep open lines of com- munication with all participants. Also, perceived problems can erode months of work. Over-communicating and mak- ing sure that all can see the vision of the group is paramount. Is your program a model that Extension teams at other LGUs could adopt? Yeah, I think it is. In fact, we’ve had conversations with other multistate Extension groups thinking about creating networks in food safety, food systems, and food preservation. What’s one of the most important partnerships you’ve formed during this process? The big one for me is that we have been successful in con- necting directly with partners at the National Institute of Food
University of Arkansas Clemson University University of Florida University of Georgia University of Kentucky North Carolina State University Oklahoma State University University of Tennessee Virginia Tech University
The institutions on the right provided resources for,
feedback on the Food Safety
Extension Network framework, priorities, & target audiences
See the Because We Can team members on page 81.
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EXTENSION FOUNDATION/NTAE | 2022-2023 YEARBOOK
2022-2023 YEARBOOK | EXTENSION FOUNDATION/NTAE
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