Centers for Disease Control estimates 48 million people get sick from food borne diseases each year in the United States. Food borne illness symptoms can occur anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks after a contaminate foods is consumed.  This often makes it difficult to identify the cause. The most common cause of food borne illness is attributed to people mishandling food, abusing the time/temperature rule, not washing their hands, and engaging in other behaviors that put themselves and others at risk. Many home food preparers think "I have always done it this way and never gotten sick."

Ten Northern Kentucky Family and Consumer Science Agents and two assistants along with the Three Rivers and Northern Kentucky Health Department presented the Mystery Dinner - The Uninvited Guest. 186 people attended the  program. 29 participants had never attended any type of Extension program before.

The Mystery Dinner was a hands on, three hour event focusing on food safety..  Each person was given the scenario of which food item could cause food poisoning at a family event. Participants then rotated through four stations learning about Hand, Surface, and Wood Washing; Food Thermometer Use and Calibration;Cooling of Foods; and Food Storage and Product Dating. Six agents, including Carroll County, represented the top six common pathogens and passed out information cards to each participant.

Four news releases were  prepared and released in Carroll County with a potential of reaching over 10,000 subscribers. Lessons were sent to over 125 mailing list members and also presented at monthly Lunch and Learn programs in Carroll County.

Participants received a mesh bag with the leader lessons in them, food thermometer, permanent marking pen, a refrigerator thermometer and other kitchen gadgets for their use.

Four months after the program, evaluations were mailed to 186 attendees. Of those returned:  85% used the permanent marker to mark the dates of food in storage, 73% no longer wash raw meat before preparing, 69% put the appliance thermometer in the refrigerator or freezer to check the temperature, 57% now divide leftovers into smaller portions and shallow containers prior to storing, 52% keep meat on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.  One person said, "I got my daughter to stop putting eggs and milk on the refrigerator door and got her to date frozen leftovers."

The event received a first and a second place recognition at the National level in two categories and was presented as a workshop at the National Meeting in the fall of 2020.