Subject Matter Expert!! Who? Me?

Yes, me. I was chosen by The National Restaurant Assoc. as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) to review some of the 1175 ServSafe questions posed by the Item Writers.
The first task at hand was to review some online. Lots of back-and-forth ensued between writers and SMEs and after a quickly-moving period of about 4 weeks, all online reviewing ceased. Whatever was left would be reviewed in Chicago.
I took an extra day or two to visit with mid-western friends and enjoy some quiet in ChiTown. SMEs were put up at the J.W.Marriott in the Sloop (South Loop), the financial district, which is nice and quiet on the weekend. The NRA (not to be confused with gun-totin' activists) is only a few streets away.


The National Restaurant Association Offices

My experience as an SME was wonderful. As one of 15 SMEs, I had the opportunity to converse with brilliant people who also spoke the language of pathogens, rubrics and domains and I met some of the most influential individuals in food safety, both past and present.
The NRA certainly made our job easy to accomplish. They provided breakfast and lunch and breaks when we needed them and more experts to debate with. They made sure our needs were met as long as we kept pushing those questions around.
And the job we did is not to be taken lightly. This test affects millions of people, those that take it and those that benefit from food safety education and certification.
It will be interesting to see where this food safety education road leads.

There's a whole lot of Food Safety Goin' On!

And there should be...In every kitchen. Especially kitchens that serve the public, whether that be for hobby/fundraising (as do churches and civic organizations) or for profit (as do restaurants, stores and caterers).
As a foodservice vocational student, I learned to fear trichinosis (a disease caused by eating a parasite from undercooked meat, mainly pork). That fear evolved into the fear of sitting on a toilet because Mr. Rich Vergili assigned the video-watching homework (CIA-Hyde Park has an entire library of films on all sorts of culinary topics) to include the movie of how long a rat can swim through a clear tube (so you can watch) filled with water.
Salmonella became the pathogen of the 80s with the increased consumption of chicken breasts. And then of course, comes E. Coli, which although has been around forever, just becomes the bacteria of the decade because of production methods and the publicizing of outbreaks.
And then I became a ServSafe Instructor/Proctor. ServSafe is a food safety training and certificate program administered by the National Restaurant Association. In most states, each foodservice establishment of certain risk levels have to have members of their staff trained and certified in food safety and sanitation and ServSafe is the national standard. I teach ServSafe at Warren County Community College and also privately. It takes a lot of work to not worry about eating after one know so much about pathogens and cross-contamination.
In March, the National Restaurant Assoc. did a resume search amongst their instructor/proctors for people to write new test questions for the exam. My resume was chosen. Flattering, as I was one of about 130. Item Writing, as the task is called, is difficult. The question and answers have to be correct, first of all (not as easy as you would think) and written in a certain format set forth for us. The answers need to be cited from the references set forth and the domain and knowledge set (what part of food safety does this cover?) need to be named. So, you can't pull a question out of a hat and have it fly.
Each Item Writer was requested to write at least 10 questions. After a while, we'll get any questions back, after they are reviewed, for editing. The reviewers will also be invited to Chicago to review the remaining questions with other Subject Matter Experts before the questions were approved for the exam.
Chicago sounds like an exciting option. I wonder if I'll be chosen as a reviewer...