Although severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is not a proven foodborne pathogen, the COVID-19 pandemic has put the food system on alert, and food safety has been identified as an important pillar in mitigating the crisis. Therefore, an understanding of how popular media are used as a vital disseminator of food safety and health information for the public is more important than ever. YouTube deserves particular attention as one of the most highly trafficked Web sites on the Internet, especially because YouTube has been blamed during the pandemic for spreading misleading or untrustworthy information that contradicts validated information. This study was conducted to evaluate the food safety information and practices circulating on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic and the alignment of these practices with recommendations from government agencies. A search for videos on YouTube was conducted using the key words “food and COVID-19,” “food safety and COVID-19,” and “groceries and COVID-19.” After applying a series of inclusive and exclusive criteria, 85 videos from the United States and Canada were evaluated. More than half (69%) of the videos presented hand washing procedures, 26% showed kitchen disinfection, and most (86%) showed take-out food or grocery store practices. Multiple produce washing procedures were also shown throughout videos. Food was not considered hazardous in 39% of the videos, but 24% mentioned that food packaging is potentially hazardous. Most videos cited government agencies and had a host or guest who was a health care professional, professor, or expert. Three videos were not aligned with a government agency's guideline or information cited; two were presented by a health care professional. These findings reveal the need to develop educational interventions that increase YouTube video host and guest awareness of social media use as a tool for food safety dissemination and the need to provide trustworthy information. HIGHLIGHTS

Consumers do not consider flour, a low-moisture food product, a high-risk for microbial contamination. In the past ten years, however, flour has been identified as a source of pathogenic bacteria, including Salmonella and E. coli . Online surveys were conducted to study consumers’ flour-handling practices and their knowledge about food safety risks related to flour. The survey also evaluated message impact on three food safety messages in communicating information and convincing consumers to adopt safe flour handling practices. Flour-using consumers (n = 1,045) from the United States reported they used flour to make cakes, cookies, and bread. Most consumers stored flour in sealed containers. Less than 1% kept a record of product identification numbers, like lot numbers, and less than 11% kept brand and use-by-date information. Many consumers (85%) were unaware of flour recalls, or outbreaks, and few (17%) believed they would be affected by flour recalls or outbreaks. If the recall affected the flour they bought, nearly half of the consumers (47%) would buy the same product from a different brand for a few months before they returned to the recalled brand. Among consumers who use flour to bake, 66% said they ate raw cookie dough or batter. Raw dough “eaters” were more difficult to convince to avoid eating and playing raw flour than “non-eaters.” Food safety messages were less impactful on those raw dough “eaters” than “non-eaters.” Compared with the food safety message with only recommendations, those messages with recommendations and an explanation as to the benefits of the practice were more effective in convincing consumers to change their practices. These findings provide insight into effective consumer education about safe flour-handling practices and could assist in the accurate development of risk assessment models related to flour handling.

Low-income families are reported to have a limited knowledge of food safety and resources to follow food safety practices compared with the rest of the population. This paper evaluated a virtual food safety educational program targeting food handlers in low-income families. Trained native speakers of English and Spanish delivered course materials in both languages. A total of 60 individuals participated in the program, with 30 participants in each language group. Most were female, and most had fewer than three children. After the program, participants’ food safety knowledge and self-reported safe food practice behavior scores increased significantly from 5.32 to 7.43 (out of 8.00) and from 24.78 to 29.30 (out of 35.00), respectively. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) was used to understand individuals’ behavior change intention of food safety practices. All the TPB constructs’ scores, including attitudes toward the behavior, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and behavior change intentions, were improved significantly; however, only the subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were significantly correlated with the behavior change intentions. This virtual educational program improved low-income individuals’ food safety knowledge and changed their food safety attitudes and behaviors, giving a path to develop and evaluate more virtual food safety educational programs in the future.

No abstract