Food Safety: Hazards to Food Safety and Factors that Affect Foodborne Illness

Lesson 4: Food Safety Enhancing Technologies

Grade Level(s)

9 - 12

Estimated Time:

45 Minutes

Purpose:

Keeping food safe is more than just washing your hands before you cut into your melon or making sure you don’t use the same knife to cut your chicken and vegetables. Food safety starts even before it reaches your home. By killing harmful bacteria or even hitchhiking insects, food safety enhancing technology helps stop foodborne illness before it leaves the processing facility. This lesson highlights a few common methods, and even a few new technologies that will help shape the future of food safety.

Objectives:

Students will compare and contrast different food safety enhancing technologies

Students will use data-based evidence and reasoning to determine which technology would be suited well for microgreens

Students will gather and interpret information about food safety technology

Students will interpret scientific papers and articles

Standards:

Agriculture and the Environment:

Science, Technology, Engineering & Math:

Materials:

YouTube Videos

Attached articles

Whiteboard/Chalkboard

Dry Erase markers/chalk

Internet access

Computer/tablet/smart phone access

Essential Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5yLFvXaZYU (MIT RFID, 2:00)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN9Ja-GzXvE (Pathogen Rapid Detection Process, 2:00)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHH1CqIjfdY (High Pressure Processing, 3:55)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjHSJT90Omw (UV Treatment, 2:00)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe6AKh_tLys (Food Irradiation, 2:41)

Background Agricultural Connections:

Interest Approach – Engagement:

YouTube Clip of MIT RFID tag that shows consumers if their food has been contaminated. Professors at MIT also hope to see the technology expand to grocers and retail stores, so it can be detected before it even goes home with the consumer.

Discuss with students how this might fit into a HACCP plan, and brainstorm food safety enhancing technologies.

Procedures:

Students will break into pairs and read the two articles provided, one about irradiation of foods, and the other about UV treatment and high-pressure process. Students should answer the following questions:

Irradiation:

What types of foods are irradiated?

What does irradiation control? Bacteria? Insects? Viruses?

How would you know if a food has been irradiated?

What is the process of irradiating food?

Why is irradiation beneficial to consumers and producers?

UV Treatment:

What is the process in UV treatment?

What are the pros and cons to UV treating food?

What foods did scientist first test UV treatment on?

How well does UV treatment work?

High Pressure Process:

What is high pressure processing?

What foods are typically processed using high pressure?

How expensive is processing foods using high pressure processing?

Once students have completed the readings, show students the short clips, demonstrating the technology being used in food safety.

As a class, create a pro/con list for each processing type. Once the list is completed, have students take out their notes from the previous day, and determine which would be best for the scenario of pre-packaged microgreens.

Students will use evidence and data-based reasoning to come to a conclusion. Have students make a table in their notes of the various processes comparing cost, ease of use, accessibility, fit for the product, etc.

Students should then write a paragraph or two about which method would be best for the microgreens, using evidence from the text or other research articles they found.

Wrap-Up:

As a wrap-up, have students vote on which method they think would be best for the microgreens. Write each of the methods on the white board and have each student come up and put a tally mark underneath the method they selected or elect one student to count everyone’s votes.