With technology readily at the fingertips of many consumers, USDA is continuously searching for innovative ways to deliver useful information to Americans right where they can easily find and utilize it. Enter the Foodkeeper app, launched in 2015, which makes it easier to practice food safety at home by offering consumers valuable storage advice and food safety information on their mobile device for more than 400 commonplace food and beverage items.

Last week, we were excited to announce an update to the app which now includes Spanish and Portuguese languages, broadening Foodkeeper’s audience to millions of additional people who can be armed with the knowledge to keep their families safe.

Developed by USDA in collaboration with the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and Cornell University’s Department of Food Science, Foodkeeper helps educate consumers about proper handling and storage for food items like baby food, dairy and egg products, meat, poultry, produce and seafood. If there is a question about what the “best by” date means or how to properly prepare and store food, the Foodkeeper app can likely answer it.

You can hear David Fikes, Vice President of FMI, explain the strategy behind developing a consumer-focused food safety app. The app is free and is available in Google Play for Android and in the App Store for Apple. Just type in Foodkeeper.

Join us throughout the month of July as we explore the incredible progress we’ve made since 2009 to update and modernize America’s food safety system and standards. Follow along on usda.gov, on the USDA blog and by using #USDAResults, or catch up on Chapter VII on our Medium site.

In July, we’ll explore the incredible progress we’ve made since 2009 to update and modernize America’s food safety system and standards.