Development and Evaluation of Standardized, Competency-Based Food Safety Education and Training Programs for the Food Industry

Non-Technical Summary: <BR>Despite considerable efforts to improve food safety in recent decades, we continue to have major challenges with foodborne illness in the US and globally. Many outbreaks are a consequence of food handling errors made by improperly trained food safety managers and/or front-line food workers. The preponderance of current evidence indicates that many foodborne illnesses can be prevented by education and training of food managers and front line food workers, and implementing appropriate food safety behaviors in the workplace. The long?term goal of this multi?functional (extension, research) project coordinated Michigan State University (MSU) in partnership with The Ohio State University and the University of Maryland?Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition is to develop high?quality, highly?scalable, standardized education and training materials for the global food system. The specific aims of this proposal are to expand MSU's Food Safety Knowledge Network (FSKN) initiative by 1) developing comprehensive educational and training materials for the following sectors - food manufacturers, fresh and minimally?processed fruit and vegetable products, retail food operations, and laboratory capacity, 2) adapting these materials for dissemination as Open Educational Resources (OER) on eLearning platforms, and 3) evaluating the efficacy of these materials to improve knowledge of food workers, improve capacity of companies to meet the requirements of food safety standards, and result in an overall improvement of food safety. The food sectors of focus in this project were identified based on prioritization processes conducted by international public sector (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum's Food Safety Cooperation Forum) and private sector (Global Food Safety Initiative, Grocery Manufacturer's Association) partner organizations. A standardized development pathway will be employed which starts with elaboration of specific sector requirements, development of competency frameworks, development of educational (knowledge) and training (skills) materials, adaptation of content for dissemination as OER, development of assessment tools, and evaluating the efficacy of the materials to improve knowledge of individuals and producer/company conformance to requirements. At the conclusion of this project we expect to have developed and deployed high?quality, validated educational and training materials which will be openly shared and available for adaptation to the needs of the US and global food system. <P> Approach: <BR> In this project, we propose to focus our materials development efforts on four scopes: 1) food manufacturing, 2) primary production of fruits and vegetables, 3) retail food operations, and 4) laboratory capacity. These sectors were selected based upon the extensive input of public and private sector organizations such as the Partnership Training Institute Network (PTIN) of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). Under our existing FSKN initiative, MSU already has developed and pilot tested educational and training materials for the food manufacturing scope. Therefore, we will build upon key lessons learned from our previous experience in refining existing content and designing new materials. Particular emphasis will be placed on developing content to assist small- and medium-scale enterprises, particularly those which are engaged in seasonal supply agreements with US-based food retailers. The project team will follow an established procedure to develop each set of education and training resources. This development pathway includes 1) elaboration of specific requirements, 2) development of competency frameworks, 3) development of educational and training materials, 4) adaptation of content for dissemination as Open Educational Resources (OER) on the Food Safety Knowledge Network (FSKN) eLearning platforms, 5) development of assessment tools for knowledge change and producer/company performance against the requirements identified in part 1 above, and 6) evaluation of the efficacy of the materials to improve knowledge of individuals and producer/company conformance to requirements. When indicated by the outcomes of evaluation and assessment procedures, we will refine educational and training materials before publishing final versions. For each of the identified scopes, the following materials will be developed: 1) competency frameworks defining knowledge and skills of food safety managers, front-line food workers, or other appropriate audiences, 2) education and training modules, 3) case studies to assist in skills development, and 4) assessment tools to evaluate efficacy of materials to impact participant knowledge. Standardized, competency-based materials developed for each scope will be adapted in several different formats for dissemination as OER on the FSKN web site and APEC PTIN web site maintained by JIFSAN. Efficacy of the educational and training materials will be assessed using a variety of methodologies, including: 1) formal assessment of participant knowledge by administration of pre- and post-tests, 2) assessment of education and training modules for completeness, accuracy and clarity, 3) summative assessment of participant perceptions of education and training programs and their impacts, and 4) evaluation of compliance with food safety requirements prior to and after training of food safety managers of these establishments.