Tips for Researching and Writing a School Report

Get Information from Multiple Sources

• Food Safety: A Team Approach
  Provides an overview of the responsibilities of the different government agencies responsible for monitoring the safety of the food supply and links to the agencies web sites.
  
• Other Non-Government Food and Nutrition Web sites
  Provides a list of selected non-government web sites related to food and nutrition topics.
  
• Selected Sources On The History Of FDA
  Provides an extensive bibliography of public affairs on the history of FDA and the regulation of foods in the US.
  

Assure that the Information you get is reliable

• Health Information on Line
  Provides tips and links for finding information on the web as well as advice to help you determine the reliability of different web sites.
  
• Recognizing Good Research
  Provides guidance for evaluating a research study's scientific standards
  (from International Food Information Council).
  
• Understanding and Interpreting Scientific Studies
  Provides an overview for understanding and interpreting food and health-related scientific studies (from International Food Information Council).
  
• A Guide to Finding Reliable Information
  Advice from the World Health Organization to help internet users obtain reliable, independent, and comparable information on the internet.
  

Use the facts to write your own report, don't copy word-for-word

Selected Topics for School Reports

History of Food and Cosmetic Regulation in The USA

• Milestones in U.S. Food and Drug Law History
  Provides a chronological summary of key FDA events.
  
• The Long Struggle for the 1906 Law
  Provides the story of the events that led to the enhancement of the 1906 Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act.
  
• The "C" in the Food Drug & Cosmetic Act
  Shows biographies of FDA commissioners and their predecessors.
  

Current Food and Cosmetic Program

• Overview of the Food and Drug Administration
  Provides an overview of the agency, which regulates food ,drugs and medical devices.
  
• Overview of Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
  Provides an overview of the FDA organization whose responsibility for ensuring that food is safe, nutritious and wholesome, and cosmetics are safe; and that they are honestly, accurately and informatively labeled.
  

Specific Food & Cosmetic Topics

• Cosmetics
• Foodborne Pathogens
• Food Additives
• Food Labeling
• Health Fraud
• Losing Weight and Maintaining Healthy Weight
• Nutrition
• Pesticides
  

Crosscutting Topics

• How Laws Are Made
  Provides a brief overview from the House of Representatives on how federal laws are made.
  
• Food Law and Regulation
  Provides access to the full text of federal government regulations and laws.
  
• Consumer Research on Food Labels and Food Safety
  Provides brief summaries of consumer research conducted by FDA and USDA
  

Conducting Your Own Research

• Selected Sources on the History of FDA
  A bibliography of interpretive secondary sources with ample reference to additional literature
• What is the Scientific Process and Ideas for Science Projects
  Provides an explanation of the scientific process and suggests ideas for agricultural science projects.
  
• Science Fair Projects: Food & Nutrition, Animals, Plants, Environment, and General Science
  Books, articles, internet resources, and educator's resources for science fair projects
  
• Requesting Information From FDA
  Provides guidance on how to request information from FDA.
  
• Requesting Records from FDA
  Provides guidance on how to use the Freedom of Information Act to request FDA records.
  
• How an Outbreak Investigation is Conducted
  Provides an overview of the procedures followed in conducting an investigation of an infectious disease outbreak.
  

Being a Good Consumer and Citizen

• Consumer Advice
  Provides Food Safety advice in a question and answer format.
  
• How to Report Illness and Product Problems
  Provides links to the government agencies that follow-up on problems with food products.
  
• Making Your Voice Heard
  Provides guidance for how you can comment on FDA regulations.
• Become A Food Scientist
  Provides information from the University of California about What is Food Science, and answers questions about making Food Science your career.

Other Related Government Websites

• EPA Student Center
• NIH Office of Science Education