Classroom time: 40 minutes, plus homework assignment

Students will be able to:

1. identify four or more food safety tips.

2. explain how to safely prepare scrambled eggs.

1. math: measuring and estimating

2. health: identifying and evaluating

3. language arts: vocabulary and spelling

4. science: measuring and observing

1. Food Safety Mystery (activity sheet 4)

2. cooking equipment

3. foods for recipe preparation

It’s important to handle foods safely. Most cases of foodborne illness could be prevented by good personal hygiene and proper cooking and storage of foods. When cooking with eggs, follow these tips to help ensure food safety:

Clean: Wash hands, counters and cooking equipment in hot, soapy water before and after each contact with a different food. Wash hands after using the bathroom or playing with pets. Discard any eggs that are cracked, broken or leaking. Avoid contact of the shell with its contents.

Cool: Buy only refrigerated eggs with clean, uncracked shells. Get them home quickly and store eggs in their cartons on a shelf inside the refrigerator at 40° F or below. Use shell eggs within 4 to 5 weeks of the pack date or 3 to 4 weeks of purchase. Use hardcooked eggs within 1 week of cooking. Allow no more than 2 hours at room temperature for eggs, egg mixtures or cooked egg dishes.  For quick cooling, refrigerate leftovers immediately in shallow containers and, after thorough reheating, consume within 2 days.  If in doubt about whether or not a food is safe, throw it out without tasting.

Cook: For basic egg recipes, cook until the whites are completely set and the yolks begin to thicken but are not hard. Cook scrambled eggs, omelets and frittatas until no visible liquid egg remains. Cook other egg dishes until a thermometer at the center measures 160° F. Cook the eggs or use a pasteurized egg product when making eggnog, ice cream, Hollandaise sauce and other recipes calling for raw eggs. Keep hot foods hot (140° F or higher) and cold foods cold (40° F or lower). Avoid cold spots in microwaved foods by covering the cooking container, turning the container, stirring the food and observing standing times in recipes.

1. Invite a local extension family-and-consumer-sciences specialist to demonstrate safe recipe preparation and discuss proper storage for all types of food.

2. Have students research ethnic egg dishes that include unfamiliar ingredients from the five major food groups. Have a tasting of unfamiliar ingredients.

3. Have students create safe-food-handling posters to hang in the school lunchroom.

4. In groups, have students design a newspaper ad for a restaurant to encourage customers to try a new egg dish.

5. Have students research foodborne illnesses and the various organisms which can cause them.