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.

About National Food Safety Education Month
National Food Safety Education Month was created in 1994 to heighten the awareness about the importance of food safety education. Each year a new theme and free training activities and posters are created for the restaurant and foodservice industry to help reinforce proper food safety practices and procedures. For more information, visit http://www.servsafe.com/nfsem.

About National Restaurant Association
Founded in 1919, the National Restaurant Association is the leading business association for the restaurant industry, which comprises 945,000 restaurant and foodservice outlets and a workforce of nearly 13 million employees. Together with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, the Association works to lead America’s restaurant industry into a new era of prosperity, prominence, and participation, enhancing the quality of life for all we serve. For more information, visit our Web site at www.restaurant.org.