How often do you wash your hands with soap and running water before preparing food? After cutting meat or seafood, how often do you wash all items and surfaces that came in contact with these foods or how often do you thaw frozen food on the counter or in the sink at room temperature? When ask these questions most adults will answer with, “always”. But do we really? How many people reach for sanitizer when running water and soap is not available? After cutting meat or seafood do we wash the cutting board, counter top or the faucet handles? Thawing frozen foods on the counter is what most of us are accustomed to. However, we didn’t realize that germs and bacteria were growing on what we eat. 

After receiving lessons from the Healthy Choice curriculum and completing a program with at least seven lessons taught, eighty- eight percent showed improvement in washing hands before preparing food, ninety- one percent improved on cleaning surfaces after contact with raw meat, eighty-nine percent improved on thawing frozen foods and one hundred percent improved on using a meat thermometer more often.