The Lake County General Health District (LCGHD) of Ohio has announced the re-launch of its Food Safety Ninja website, which was originally developed with support from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The newly designed resource provides food safety information that is relevant to foodservice and food retail establishments.

The creation of the original Food Safety Ninja website began in 2015 when LCGHD obtained a 5-year FDA grant to improve the food safety program in Lake County, Ohio. Included within the grant was the requirement to create an innovative food safety intervention directed at food establishments. To develop the educational intervention, LCGHD food staff reached out to a local professor from the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA). The original website served as an educational intervention to which licensed food establishments were sent for remedial education when certain food safety violations were found during a routine inspection.

The mandatory remedial education portion of the website has been removed, but the education videos and quizzes remain for use by anyone desiring food safety training. The new homepage includes up-to-date food recall and outbreak alerts, weekly food safety tips and videos, printable resources, handouts, quizzes with printable certificates, food safety links, and an “Ask the Experts” section, where individuals can ask specific food safety questions that will be answered by LCGHD’s food staff. For those who would like to test their food safety knowledge, there is an interactive “That’s Just Wrong!” page that has pictures or videos that display incorrect food safety practices, to which viewers may respond by submitting a photo showing the correct way to solve the improper food safety situation. If chosen by LCGHD food staff, the viewer’s photo and name will be posted on the website as an honorary “food safety ninja.”

Additionally, LCGHD added content and reformatted the website to be usable by both the regulated food community and the general public. LCGHD hopes that food services continue to use the Food Safety Ninja website to help train new staff, and that consumers refer to the website as a resource.

Food Safety Ninja: http://www.foodsafetyninja.org/