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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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CONTACT: Jay Purdy |
State Rep. John Myers |
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Myers food safety resolution adopted by state House
HARRISBURG, Sept. 25 – The state
House today adopted a resolution sponsored by
Rep. John Myers, D-Phila., asserting Pennsylvania’s support for
National Food Safety Education Month. The vote was 198-1.
Each year, there is a one in four chance that an individual American will suffer from food poisoning. The goal of Myers’ resolution (H.R. 398) is to help counter that statistic.
“I sponsored this measure as another means to publicize the importance of proper food handling in the fields, at market, in restaurants and at home,” said Myers, a member of the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee. “Every few weeks, we read about a large outbreak of illness due to contaminated food being served at a restaurant or from improperly processed items sold at a grocery store.
“Some of these contamination incidents affect thousands of people. But in addition, there are countless more individual cases that occur because we don’t handle food wisely at home.”
It is estimated that every year, 76 million Americans become ill from contaminated food and about 325,000 wind up hospitalized. Some bacterial and viral illnesses can cause permanent damage to nerves and organs, and about 5,000 Americans die each year because of microorganisms in their food.
The more serious diseases in improperly processed food include E. coli; Salmonella, which affects up to 2,000 Pennsylvanians a year; and hepatitis A, a virus believed responsible for sickening about 200 Pennsylvanians each year.
Myers said that there are four key steps that consumers should remember when preparing food:
- Wash hands and countertops often.
- Process food separately to avoid cross-contamination from foods like uncooked chicken to foods such as salad greens.
- Cook foods to the proper temperature.
- Chill and refrigerate perishable food promptly.
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