Evaluation of different food safety education interventions

Abstract

Purpose – The positive deviance (PD) focus group is a novel educational intervention that allows participants to discuss their food handling behaviors and decide to try recommended practices modeled by people like themselves. Currently, most food safety education is delivered through reading materials. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of food safety education utilizing three interventions: PD, personal story reading and reading standard material. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 89 pregnant women and 93 people with diabetes received food safety information through one of three intervention methods: PD, reading standard educational material (Standard) and reading material presented in a story format (Story). A survey assessed self-reported risk and food safety knowledge and personal hygiene before and after the interventions. Take-home assignments allowed participants to practice recommendations. Post class interviews and survey assessed knowledge gained and reported behavior change. Findings – Compared to those who merely read educational information, participants in a PD Intervention had higher knowledge scores and adopted more safe handling recommendations. Involvement of the participants and the length of information exposure likely contributed to the significant difference between the interventions. This suggests that food safety education is most effective when delivered in a supportive discussion format. Health education programs for these vulnerable groups should endeavor to deliver safe food handling guidelines through a PD approach. Originality/value – Previous research demonstrated the effectiveness of PD when delivering nutrition education. This is the first paper that explored the effectiveness of a PD intervention in delivering safe handling recommendations.

An Evaluation of a Virtual Food Safety Program for Low-Income Families: Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior

“…Borrusso et al [58] performed a visual audit consumers' home kitchens and reported that 43% of the refrigerators were not under the recommended temperature and only 4% of the refrigerators had a thermometer. However, educational interventions have been effective in making consumers aware of checking the correct refrigerator and freezer temperatures [59]. Organizations and agencies have also provided recommendations related to these practices.…”

“…Knowledge has been the major component of evaluating interventions, regardless of the theories, formats, or target population, researchers have used in their interventions [59,67]. Different types of interventions can be found in the literature: some have evaluated courses, workshops, and campaigns, among others [45,68,69].…”

Assessment of Knowledge and Behavior Change of a High School Positive Deviance Food Safety Curriculum

“…The multifacet evaluation results showed that there was a significant increase in self‐reported food safety knowledge change and observed safe handling practices. Positive deviance was shown effective in increasing food safety knowledge and self‐reported behaviors among vulnerable populations, like pregnant women and people with diabetes (Feng et al., ; Feng, Bruhn, & Marx, ). This study confirmed that positive deviance is an effective approach to be utilized in food safety education among adolescents.…”

Critical Factors and Enablers of Food Quality And Safety Compliance Risk Management in the Vietnamese Seafood Supply Chain

“…Guidelines, education, training, and workshops by government and industrial associations provide valuable technical support to improve understanding, knowledge, awareness and skill in complying and updating food safety regulations and standards for the main actors in the Vietnamese seafood supply chain, especially small-scale farmers, capturers and processors [50,57,58].…”