Efficacy of Training, Good Practices and Management Systems to Control Food Safety Hazards

Thelong range goalof this research is to determine the efficacy of producer education and food safety management systems to ensure the safety of fresh and processed food products.The objective of this proposal is to determine the impact of food safety training programs and implementation of food safety management systems on the incidence and concentrations of food safety hazards in fresh and processed produce products as well as other fresh and processed foods.Thecentral hypothesisof this research is that participation in formal food safety training programs will increase knowledge of producers and processors, and change behaviors (practices) of these producers and processors resulting in reduced incidence and concentrations of food safety hazards likely to be associated with these products.Assessing the impacts of participation in structured food safety training programs on food safety knowledge and behaviors will provide greater understanding of general mechanisms whereby food safety practices influence hazard incidence and levels in fresh and minimally processed fruit and vegetable products.We plan to test our central hypothesis and accomplish the overall objective of this proposed research by pursuing the followingspecific aims:1.Assess the impact of production and processing practices on the incidence and concentrations of selected microbiological and chemical food safety hazards in food products.Theworking hypothesisof this aim is that the incidence and concentrations of food safety hazards can be directly related to production and processing practices.This hypothesis will be tested by quantifying selected food safety hazards in certain fresh and processed food products, and relating these parameters to data on production and processing practices obtained by surveys and facility visits.2.Determine the impact of food safety training programs on changes in participant knowledge and behaviors and consequent changes in food safety hazards in food products produced by participant firms.The working hypothesis of this aim is that participation in formal food safety training programs will increase knowledge, promote behaviors conducive to controlling food safety hazards, and ultimately reduce the incidence and concentrations of selected food safety hazards in certain fresh and processed fruit and vegetable products.This hypothesis will be tested by conducting formal food safety training programs and measuring knowledge change, behavior change, and quantifying food safety hazards in products produced by participant establishments.