Toll-free hotline answers food safety questions

Submitted by Debra Damron
Phone: (907) 474-5420
05/03/06

Alaskans with food safety questions about everything from wild game preservation to using frozen leftovers can now find answers through a statewide toll-free hotline.

The hotline, 1-888-823-3663, is sponsored by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service and provides easy access to food safety and preservation information. The public can also "Ask an Expert"? online at www.uaf.edu/ces/homeeconomics.

Extension Home Economics Program Assistant Marci Johnson, who is responsible for finding the answers to important food safety questions, says many of the queries coming in now focus on proper methods of smoking and canning fish.

"Those generally last throughout the summer,"? she said. "As the weather turns warmer, berries and jam-making questions start. At summer’s end and into fall, it’s questions on wild game meat or storing food from the garden."?

Johnson says there’s no easy method for researching the answers.

"Some questions are asked so often that the answers are kept on file. Others are addressed in our publications, which I can either mail or fax to the caller, or I let them know that many of our publications are available for free online at www.uaf.edu/ces/homeeconomics,"? she said. "A lot of the calls that cross my desk require some degree of research. The answer may be as close as the textbook above my head or a quick Internet search. Other times it’s hunting down an expert."?

Whatever the question, Johnson says she takes them all seriously and finds a research-based answer or a very reputable source to use in answering them promptly and reliably.