The Centers for Disease Control estimates 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from food-borne diseases each year in the United States. (https://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/estimates-overview.html)Food- borne illness symptoms can occur anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks after a contaminated foods is consumed. The most common “cause” of food-borne illness is attributed to people mishandling food, abusing the time/temperature rule and not washing their hands. 

  The mystery dinner theater was designed to remind and educate participants about safe food handling practices that may help them prevent causing food-borne illness. The eight counties in the Northern Kentucky Area Family and Consumer Sciences Agents presented a program “The Mystery Dinner: The Uninvited Guest” to 186 homemakers. The objectives of the program were to encourage the proper use of food thermometers to check food temps, reinforce the need to wash hands frequently during food preparation, to clean surfaces properly, and label and date foods. There were five stations that participants vested along with a question and answer session with local health department personnel.  The Kentucky State Family and Consumer Science Agent assisted with registration, wore a costume depicting salmonella, mingled with participants discussing signs, symptoms, longevity, and causes of salmonella. Participants were surprised to learn how easy it was get ad prevent salmonella poisoning.

 A written evaluation to all who attended will be mailed in January to assess knowledge gained and skills utilized.