Behind The Scenes

Today, your personal information is as valuable as your money, and protection is essential! The CR Security Planner is a free, easy-to-use guide to help you stay safer online. You will receive expert advice and can build a personalized plan to help you lower the risk of social media accounts being hacked, lock down devices from smartphones to home security cameras, and reduce intrusive tracking by websites. In fact, Apple gave the Security Planner a vote of confidence by recommending it for people who need urgent cybersecurity resources. Go to securityplanner.org to get started today!

More than 25,000 CR members and activists weighed in over the fall, calling on the Biden administration to set strong standards for cars and light trucks that increase fuel efficiency, to save consumers money and reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases. Along with other stakeholders, CR submitted official comments and member petitions, and our efforts paid off! In December, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule for passenger cars and light trucks manufactured between 2023-2026, which was much improved over its August 5 proposal. The rule will save consumers $2,400 over the lifetime of new vehicles purchased in 2026, while improving air quality for communities across the country.

Forty-eight million people get sick from something they eat each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Follow CR’s tips to stay as safe as possible:

Wash Your Shopping Bag Regularly
Totes made out of cloth can be a breeding ground for bacteria that cause foodborne illness. Don’t switch back to plastic. Simply toss bags in the washing machine and use hot water. 

Sanitize Your Sponges
Sponges are hotbeds for bacterial buildup because they come into contact with many food particles. Never use one to wipe up meat juices; use a paper towel instead. Sanitize the sponge every day by running it through a dishwasher. Or you can microwave it (wet) for

1 minute on high if it doesn’t contain any metal. But be careful when removing it from the microwave—it will be really hot!

No Need to Rinse Poultry Before Cooking
There’s no culinary or cleanliness benefit to rinsing poultry. In fact, washing the bird could splash dangerous bacteria onto your sink, countertops, and nearby utensils or dishes.

Don’t Keep Meat on the Top Shelf of the Fridge
Disease-causing bacteria from raw meat or poultry can drip onto foods stored below and make you seriously ill. Place raw meats, poultry, and seafood on the bottom shelf of the fridge, where it’s also cooler. Remember to store it securely in containers or sealed plastic bags to prevent the juices from contaminating other foods. Clean up spills in the fridge immediately. 

To get more food safety tips, go to CR.org/foodsafetytips.

CR tested ground meat purchased from supermarkets around the U.S., and we found a dangerous strain of E. coli bacteria called O157:H7 in a package of ground beef bought in Seattle. Our food safety experts immediately reported the results to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which then announced a recall of more than 28,000 pounds of meat because it might be contaminated. The beef was sold at Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Walmart, and WinCo supermarkets in seven states. No illnesses had been reported as of early January, but if you shop at these stores, check your freezer to see whether you have any of the recalled products. You can find a list at CR.org/beef-ecoli.

Lilian Kayizzi has led CR’s Lab Operations since March 2020. She is an engineer specializing in manufacturing, process optimization, and measurement systems. She came to CR from Nobel Biocare, where she led a team of engineers who delivered innovative products and processes. Prior to that, Lilian oversaw the process development, testing, and commercialization of new products at Kraft Foods. Lilian holds a B.S. in Industrial Chemistry from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from City College of New York (CUNY). She is a Certified Project Manager from Cornell University.

Your background is about making systems more efficient. As Director, have you been working on that with CR’s Labs?
Yes, working closely with the Lab Operations team, improving efficiency has been an area of focus. We are trying to test as many products as possible in order to better meet our members’ needs, but always with a discipline and rigor that one would expect from CR’s labs. I rely heavily on “lean” tools and concepts. Lean is a philosophy of continuous improvement that allows us to simplify and standardize how we do things and improve our overall efficiency.

What’s been the biggest innovation at the Lab recently and why? 
We recently designed and built a dish soiling machine. When we test dishwashers, we need a lot of dirty dishes. Not only that, they all need to have the same amount of dirt on them to ensure a level playing field. We used to do this by hand, placing a specific amount of grime mixed on the dish at a specific location and spreading it out in a uniform manner. A time-consuming process that sometimes required multiple tries. With the new machine, the dishes are soiled automatically and very consistently. We are constantly thinking of how we can do things better in large ways or by making small improvements to our processes and testing methods that add up to being transformative.

How do you see CR’s Labs evolving?
I envision transitioning to more flexible labs that can quickly be transformed to test different products. Maximizing space, with state-of-the-art equipment that is easily set up to respond to new consumer product trends as times change.

What do you do when you aren’t directing the Labs? 
Outside of the labs, I enjoy spending time with my family, jogging, swimming, and watching movies. Most recently, I have been jogging in frigid conditions. As a girl from the tropics, this is a win. I celebrate small wins.