“Is food safe if left out overnight?” Should I wash chicken before cooking it?” are some of the questions frequently received at the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline. They know people aren’t sitting at a computer when these questions occur, and they often need the answers right away.
Just in time for summer grilling season—one of the busiest times of year for the Hotline—USDA just announced that their virtual food safety representative, Ask Karen, is now available in mobile format. Ask Karen is a knowledge base with information for consumers about preventing foodborne illness, safe food handling and storage, and safe preparation of meat, poultry, and egg products. It is administered by the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline. Now you can access Karen's extensive knowledge base about safely handling, cooking, and storing food directly from your smart phone, anywhere and anytime your phone can access the Internet.
Mobile Ask Karen has all the same features as Ask Karen on your computer. Only now, she can answer your food safety questions at the grocery store, in your kitchen, or at your barbecue grill. Hopefully, by sending Karen out to picnics, farmers markets, and backyard cookouts via people’s smart phones, she’ll be able to reduce the number of foodborne illnesses that usually increase in the summer months.
Using your iOS (iPhone and iPad) or Android device, you can chat live with a food safety expert on weekdays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. EST, and the web-based app provides the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline number (1-888-MPHotline) in case you want to speak to someone directly.
If it’s midnight, however, and you’re not sure if you should snack on the pizza that’s been sitting on your countertop since dinnertime, the Ask Karen database is available 24/7 and has the answers to nearly 1,500 food safety questions. Chances are, someone else has faced a similar dilemma, and a solution can be found by searching for a few keywords.
Knowing how much time everyone spends on their smart phones, it only makes sense that Ask Karen should be available from such a widely used tool.
Take Karen with you! To start using Mobile Ask Karen now, go to m.AskKaren.gov, or scan the QR code into your iOS or Android-powered device:
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