ARLINGTON, Va. – The Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) offers home cooks “The Story of Your Dinner” consumer education campaign for the upcoming, at-home holiday meal season. The campaign will stress the importance food safety practices.

This pilot project will focus on Southeastern audiences from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Sponsors for the project include Cargill, Coca-Cola, the Frozen Food Foundation, Nestlé USA and Publix Super Markets.

The Story of Your Dinner website, www.storyofyourdinner.org, emphasizes the “Core Four” home food safety practices:

• Clean: Wash hands and surfaces often.

• Separate: Don't cross-contaminate.

• Cook: Cook to the safe internal temperature.

• Chill: Refrigerate or freeze promptly.

The website will also use the following as vehicles to share at-home tips for healthy meal prep:

• The short, animated Story of Your Dinner video exploring the ‘chain of prevention’ from farm, processing and retail, to safety tips that are important to get dinner on the table at home.

• Activity placemats for children featuring food safety fun facts that can be downloaded by parents and printed at home.

• Recipes for holiday dishes complete with food safety steps created by participating Southeastern food bloggers.

• A “Turkey Hand in Health” sweepstakes illustrating the consumer’s “hand” in helping prevent foodborne illness. Sweepstakes prizes include high-value grocery gift cards.

• A Twitter Party highlighting holiday food safety basics will take place Nov. 16 at 4 p.m. EST at Twitter.com/Fight_BAC with prizes from campaign sponsors, including a turkey basket and gift cards.

“With so many home cooks planning to prepare large meals over the holidays, coupled with the fact that one in six people become sick from a foodborne illness each year, this is the best time for reminders about the importance of safe food handling for good health,” Shelley Feist, PFSE executive director, said in a statement. “We’re excited to tell ‘The Story of Your Dinner’ and to showcase the many food safety steps taken — from farm and processing to retail and, finally, in the home kitchen — to safely prepare food for our loved ones.”