SOURCE: National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation Free Food Safety Training Tools for Restaurants and Foodservice Operators CHICAGO, IL–(Marketwire – September 1, 2010) – The National Restaurant Association encourages restaurant and foodservice operators to celebrate its 16th annual National Food Safety Education Month. This month-long campaign is held every September and focuses on the importance of food safety education for the restaurant and foodservice industry, while raising awareness of the industry’s commitment to food safety. The theme of this year’s National Food Safety Education Month is “High-Risk Customers: Serve Your Fare with Extra Care.” The program offers five weeks of free training materials, available for download at http://www.servsafe.com/nfsem . The weekly training activities and posters can be used to supplement existing in-unit food safety training. All materials reinforce the theme, “High-Risk Customers: Serve Your Fare with Extra Care,” and focus on the special needs of children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with weak immune systems. The curriculum for National Food Safety Education Month is broken down into five weekly themes, with each theme stressing a different aspect of food safety and high-risk customers. These themes cover topics such as recognizing high-risk customers, children and food safety risk, foods to avoid, minimum internal cooking temperatures, and food safety risk factors. All NFSEM materials are based on the National Restaurant Association’s ServSafe food safety training and certification program. The materials communicate food safety concepts efficiently and all the activities can be completed in less than 10 minutes.