Happy Picnickers Reward Players with Points, Food Safety Slip-Ups Can Spoil the Fun

What’s one way to ruin a perfect picnic? Yep, food poisoning. Just in time for grilling season, Perfect Picnic for iPhone and iPad launches today and is available now for free at the App Store. Download here.
Developed for kids ages 8–11, but fun for all ages, Perfect Picnic turns players into masters of their own picnic park  - building out a park filled with outdoor kitchens, grills, trees and more. They earn “income” by renting out barbeque spots and keeping their visitors happy.

Players can build the most awesome park in town by making sure their visitors have a good experience and easy access to supplies for a delicious and safe cookout. The more successful they are at helping their visitors, the more they can improve the quality and increase the size of their park.

But nothing spoils the perfect picnic like harmful bacteria living on dirty hands, food that has sat out in the sun too long and undercooked meat. Players’ entire park operations can go off-track if they don’t help their visitors learn to:

• Wash their hands to reduce risk of contaminating food;
• Use a food thermometer to measure the internal temperature of hamburgers for safe consumption;
• Keep their coolers filled with ice, so picnic perishable foods stay chilled to 40 °F; and
• Keep a “clean scene” by keeping food preparation surfaces clean.

The game has been produced by the nonprofit Partnership for Food Safety Education, which works to help consumers keep important safe food handling practices top-of-mind and take action to reduce their risk of food poisoning.

“We wanted Perfect Picnic to be fun and provide great brain food for kids, too,” said Shelley Feist, executive director of the Partnership for Food Safety Education. “Players learn fast that a sick visitor is not a satisfied visitor, so helping picnic goers practice smart and safe food handling practices is a sure way to earn a reputation as the best park in town.”

“Perfect Picnic is an engaging, fun opportunity to help kids learn about food safety, not to mention discover what it takes to be a great park manager,” said Mike Robach, vice president of corporate food safety, quality and regulatory affairs for Cargill, the corporate sponsor for the development of Perfect Picnic. “We hope it will inspire life-long healthy behaviors.”

To learn more about safe food handling, visit www.fightbac.org.