Virtual Instructor-Led Trainings (VILTs)
Keeping Food Safe
Lesson from Food Safety In Schools
Keeping Food Safe
Key Area: 2 (Operations)
USDA Code: 2600 – Food Safety and HACCP
Intended Audience: Everyone
This session focuses on the process for preventing foodborne illness and keeping food safe.
It is important to follow basic food handling practices at each operational step. These operational steps include purchasing, receiving, storing, preparing, cooking, serving and holding, cooling, reheating, and transporting.
There are safe food handling practices that need to be followed at each step, including time and temperature control; employee personal hygiene; and prevention of contamination.
Following this lesson, participants will be able to:
- describe how purchasing relates to food safety;
- list food safety practices that should be followed when receiving food;
- describe safe food handling practices for dry, refrigerated, and frozen storage;
- list good food handling practices when preparing food;
- describe safe methods for thawing frozen food;
- list food safety guidelines for cooking food;
- state internal cooking temperatures for foods often prepared in schools;
- state appropriate holding temperatures for hot and cold food;
- describe food safety guidelines for serving food;
- list steps for the safe cooling of food; and
- describe the reheating process for food.
Monday, September 25, 2023
10 a.m. – 12 p.m. CDT
Preventing Foodborne Illness
Lesson from Food Safety In Schools
Preventing Foodborne Illness
Duration: 2 Hours
Key Area: 2 (Operations)
USDA Code: 2600 – Food Safety and HACCP
Intended Audience: Everyone
Food safety is one of the basic responsibilities of all school nutrition employees. Research conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shows that basic food safety practices need to be improved.
Active managerial control of foodborne illness risk factors was recommended by FDA. Areas identified as most in need of improvement included employee handwashing, cold holding, date marking of ready-to-eat foods, and cleaning and sanitizing of food contact surfaces.
Preventing Foodborne Illness training will focus on preventing foodborne illness.
Following this training session, participants will be able to:
- describe ways in which harmful bacteria can contaminate food,
- list good personal hygiene practices that should be followed by school nutrition employees,
- demonstrate proper handwashing procedures to minimize hand-to-food cross contamination,
- list times when school nutrition employees should wash their hands,
- describe proper glove use,
- demonstrate use of a food thermometer,
- demonstrate how to calibrate a thermometer using the ice-point method,
- describe ways to minimize food-to-food cross contamination,
- describe ways to minimize equipment-to-food cross contamination,
- list the responsibilities of school nutrition managers in preventing foodborne illness, and 24 Lesson 2 Food Safety in Schools Participant’s Workbook
- describe the types of illness and symptoms of illness that food handlers must report to their supervisors.
Monday, September 25, 2023
2 p.m. – 4 p.m. CDT
Food Safety In Child Care
Food Safety In Child Care
Intended Audience: Everyone
This food safety training is for child care employees using the four key concepts of the USDA Fight BAC program: Clean, Separate, Cook, Chill.
Monday, October 16, 2023
9 a.m. – 1 p.m. CDT
Basic Culinary Math
Basic Culinary Math
Duration: 4 Hours
Key Areas: 2 (Operations) & 3 (Administration)
USDA Codes: 2000, 3000
Target Audience: School Nutrition Assistants and Technicians
This virtual training provides participants with the opportunity to review and practice basic culinary math skills, including the basic math principles of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The remainder of the training will focus on other key skills such as measuring and converting measurements, scaling recipes, and calculating food costs.
Monday, November 13, 2023
8 a.m. – 12 p.m. CDT
Financial Management
for Managers
Financial Management for Managers
Duration: 6 Hours
Key Area: 3 (Administration)
USDA Code: 3000
Target Audience: Managers
This virtual training was developed for site-based school nutrition managers and supervisors. Participants receive instruction on the relationship of program cost and revenue, standard security practices to protect the financial integrity, budget management, increasing productivity and decreasing waste, and staff responsibility for sound financial management practices.
Monday, December 4, 2023
8 a.m. – 12 p.m. CDT
The following equipment is required for the virtual sessions:
To participate in a virtual training, a camera, microphone, and speakers are required. Most new laptops, smartphones, and tablets are equipped with internal cameras, microphones, and speakers. These internal devices are sufficient for use in our virtual trainings.
However, for the best experience, we suggest participants use an external headset with a built-in microphone. This may include your Apple earbuds or third party headphones with microphone. Headsets with built-in microphones provide listening privacy, reduce microphone feedback, and transmit higher quality audio.
If you have a pair of headphones that do not have a built-in microphone, your computer, smartphone, or tablet internal microphone will suffice, but to minimize microphone feedback, we ask that you still listen to the audio with your headphones plugged in.
If you do not have a pair of headphones with or without a built-in microphone, you may still complete the training using the internal camera, microphone, and speakers of your device.
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