DMI Develops the FoodKeeper, an App Designed to Educate Consumers on Proper Food Handling and Storage

BETHESDA, Md., April 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- It is critical that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and its partners have reliable resources available to further their mission of ensuring the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry and egg products are safe, wholesome and correctly labeled and packaged. While information is available from a variety of sources, including the FSIS public website, the agency saw the need to extend this information to mobile devices. Today, DMI announced that it was selected by FSIS to leverage mobility through the development of a FoodKeeper mobile app. The app is available for Android http://tiny.cc/5zhowx and Apple http://tiny.cc/s0howx devices.

With the FoodKeeper, the FSIS looks to encourage the adoption and re-use of this valuable information in order to better educate the public on proper food storage and handling.

• Raising awareness on food safety and preparation - The Food Safety Education Staff (FSES), within the Office of Public Affairs and Consumer Education (OPACE) of FSIS, provides educational content through various channels designed to positively influence consumer food handling behavior. Through FSES's partnership with the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and Cornell University's Department of Food Science, FSIS has provided advice in the development and maintenance of the database that powers the application.
• Leveraging mobility to educate the public - FSIS has embraced mobility as a means for delivering educational content to consumers to inform them on best practices for keeping in-home food safe. Some of the goals of the project include:
  • Prevention of foodborne illness by strengthening public health awareness
  • Increased outreach to underserved populations that use mobile devices for access to the Internet
  • Consolidation of data from various platforms and databases into a single integrated solution
  • Enables scalability and future growth for further product enhancements
• Enhancing the consumer experience - FSIS turned to DMI to develop an intuitive and user friendly mobile app, for iOS and Android devices that provides quick access to information in a way that is easily understood. This mobile application allows consumers to determine if the food in their home refrigerator/freezer and pantry are safe to eat in just a few simple taps/swipes. Additionally, the app contains valuable storage and cooking advice to help consumers maintain the freshness and quality of foods.

Chris Bernstein, team lead for food safety education at FSIS/USDA, said: "We recognize the fact that today's consumer is mobile. The FoodKeeper app was envisioned as a tool that not only educates but also aggregates content from a variety of resources to provide easy access to this important information. This app not only enhances and encourages important best practices in food storage – it also delivers consistent, current information to a broader audience."

Jay Sunny Bajaj, DMI founder and CEO, said: "Organizations these days understand that in order to reach today's consumer, it is imperative to have a long-term mobility roadmap. More importantly, agencies need to stay ahead of public demands while keeping pace with the emerging technologies on the market today. We are proud to be able to assist the USDA and its affiliates in their endeavor to communicate this critical information to the consumer."

About DMI:
DMI, the world's first end-to-end mobility company, combines all the skills and services necessary to deliver mobile enterprise solutions. Built to reinvent business through mobility, DMI has expertise in mobile strategy, UX, web, and app development, omni-channel commerce, brand and marketing, big data management and analytics, and secure device and app management. The company's unique, integrated approach to mobility has resulted in dramatic growth as well as an expanding client base, which includes hundreds of Fortune 1000 commercial clients and all fifteen U.S. Federal Departments. Additional information is available at www.dminc.com and on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

PR Contacts:
Kim Dearborn
Nadel Phelan, Inc.
831-440-2407
[email protected]

Alika Nagpaul
DMI
240-200-5852
[email protected]

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SOURCE DMI

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