Development and Implementation of a Food Safety Knowledge Instrument

Abstract

Little is known about the food safety knowledge of young adults. In addition, few knowledge questionnaires and no comprehensive, criterion‐referenced measure that assesses the full range of food safety knowledge could be identified. Without appropriate, valid, and reliable measures and baseline data, it is difficult to develop and implement effective education efforts. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive, valid, reliable food safety knowledge questionnaire. Questionnaire development followed this process: 1) use of published reports and input from experts in food safety and sanitation (n = 7) to identify key food safety concepts; 2) development of a question bank (n = 101) assessing knowledge of key concepts (i.e., cross contamination prevention'disinfection procedures; safe times/temperatures for cooking/storing foods; groups at greatest risk for foodborne disease; foods that increase risk of foodborne disease; and foodborne disease pathogens); 3) refinement of initial questions by experts; 4) questionnaire pretest with young adults (n = 180) and refinement; 5) questionnaire pilot test (n = 126) and refinement; 6) final expert review and refinement; and 7) conversion into an online survey. Young adults (n = 4343, mean age 19.9 ± 1.7SD years) from 21 universities and colleges across the country completed the questionnaire. Item analysis was used to determine the overall quality of the test and identify improvements needed. Livingston's coefficient of reliability for criterion‐referenced tests was 0.92. The questionnaire met or exceeded generally recognized standards of reliability and validity. This questionnaire could be useful in baseline assessment of food safety knowledge and measurement of knowledge gained after an educational intervention in adults.

Patterns of Food Safety Knowledge among Australians: A Latent Class Approach

“…The food safety section of the questionnaire was a selection of modified questions from a validated survey conducted by Byrd-Bredbenner et al (8) and a questionnaire used by Jay et al (13).…”

Food Safety Self-Reported Behaviors and Cognitions of Young Adults: Results of a National Study

“…These psychosocial measures were included because they are associated with a wide array of personal health choices and are thus key to understanding current food safety practices and creating interventions to change them (2-5, 13, 32, 44, 59). A detailed description of the developmental process used to create the psychosocial measures has been published previously (21,22). In brief, a pool of statements for each psychosocial measure was identified from the literature (11,18,20,28,31,33,35,40,41,44,48,53,56,69,71,73), created de novo, or both.…”

Food hygiene knowledge in adolescents and young adults

“…Food safety knowledge was measured using an online version of the Food Safety Knowledge questionnaire (Byrd-Bredbenner et al, 2007b). This is a validated and standardised questionnaire that covers many facets of safe food handling.…”

“…As mentioned, younger age groups are most at risk for inappropriate food handling behaviours and consequently foodborne disease. Byrd-Bredbenner et al (2007b) found that young adults aged 17 to 19 had the lowest food safety knowledge;…”