The focus of this research is to provide an innovative approach for delivering food safety education to adolescents.  Middle school students are specifically targeted because they are more likely to synthesize this information in a way that will lead to the development of new behaviors.   The goal of this project is to implement a classroom-based curriculum in which food safety concepts are integrated into TN and NC state standards in core subject areas for seventh grade. The unit produced for this project fully integrates skills and objectives that are aligned with state standards for each core subject area.  This food safety curriculum is not extraneous because it builds on those skills and objectives already covered in state standards.  Therefore, teachers do not need to teach new skills but center skills they are already teaching on a food safety theme. This integrated curriculum contains high energy, hands-on activities that simulate real-world applications of food safety, therefore reinforcing the importance of these concepts in students’ daily lives, broadening student knowledge of the topic, and exposing them to possible careers in food science. 
   
This project includes an evaluation of the food safety unit in five pre-selected test schools to verify its effectiveness and improve the overall quality of the curriculum.  Sustainability of the program relies on providing county-level extension agents the training and materials necessary to use the curriculum as a tool for promoting food safety education in local school systems. 

ERS. 2002. Economics of foodborne disease: food and pathogens. Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.  (Internet, WWW).