************** GANGPLANK JR SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT *************************

As many of you know we run a First Lego League team here at Gangplank Jr. This years theme is the Food Factor Challenge and deals with Health and Safety in the Food Industry. Part of the competition is coming up with a 5 minute presentation on a specific topic within the theme and this year the team has decided to do their presentation on the cross contamination of food, specifically cutting raw meat and then cutting fruit and vegetables with the same knife. The kids have decided to share some of their research with our readers to bring awareness to the problems and solutions to help prevent illness. This will be a weekly post over the next couple of weeks as they get more information to share with you. So without further ado here is something from the first two contributors Josh and Nick:

We learned that cross contamination makes 5,000 people die a year and 76 million people get sick. This happens because people are cutting bacon, meat, steak, chicken, etc. Then people don’t wash the utensil and then cut veggies or fruit. Food Poisoning, Salmonella and other bacteria gets into the food, then transverses to a person’s body. They get sick and about 3 weeks later they either die or get well. So please when preparing food please wash your hands and your knives when cutting meats.