Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) debuted its brand new, 40-foot-long Food Safety Discovery Zone, a food safety educational center on wheels that will travel across the country to teach the public about proper food handling.

“The Discovery Zone… will take critical food safety messages directly to the public, in the places where they live, work, play, shop, and go to school,” said Craig Stoltz, FSIS’ Web service director said on the official USDA blog. “That outreach is an important aspect of this Administration’s and the President’s Food Safety Working Group’s efforts to reduce the burden of foodborne illness nationwide.”

Last week the FSIS YouTube channel released a video about the food safety classroom on wheels:

Tentative Discovery Zone Schedule

MAY 2010

Beltsville, MD May 22, 2010 Fresh Farm Market, H Street
Washington, DC May 25, 2010 FSIS Food Safety Education Camp
Beltsville, Maryland May 26, 2010 FSIS Unity Day
Beltsville, MD

JUNE 2010

Jun 4-5, 2010 Variety Children’s Barbecue Bash
Memphis, TN Jun 8, 2010 Erin City Hall
Erin, TN Jun 10-13, 2010 CMA Music Festival
Nashville, TN Jun 14 – 20, 2010 Chattanooga Riverbend Festival
Chattanooga, TN Jun 22, 2010 Auburn University
Auburn, AL Jun 23, 2010 Tuskegee University
Tuskegee, AL Jun 24-25, 2010 Partner in Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, AL Jun 26, 2010 Bayou Le Batre, AL

For the rest of the schedule, which loops through the Midwest and then comes back to the Chesapeake region, from May through November 2010 – see the Food Safety and Inspection Service site: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Food_Safety_Education/Mobile_Events_by_Date/index.asp