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Our long-term goal is to increase the ability of older adults to live independently at home by reducing risk factors that lead to morbidity and early mortality. The overall objective of this application, which is an important aspect toward attainment of our long-term goal, is to develop and evaluate a multifunctional food safety training program targeting the continuum from food preparation; to packaging; and to delivery of meals for consumption in the home, and disseminating this program to the network of elderly nutrition programs through distance learning using webconferencing technology. <P>More specifically, our objectives are as follows: <OL> <LI> Identify food safety and food handling practices at the national and local levels and through focus groups. <LI> Develop, pilot test and evaluate a multifunctional food safety training course targeting nutrition food service managers, staff and volunteers working for the HDM program and the clients. <LI> Disseminate the training program to the appropriate conduit for training of HDM programs within each state through distance learning, web conferencing technology. </OL>Expected outcomes: First, we will identify risk factors for foodborne illness through a comprehensive approach at the individual and programmatic levels. Second we will develop, test and evaluate a training program for food program managers, volunteers and clients and incorporate checking the refrigerator temperature by the in-home assessor. The outcome evaluation will allow us to measure the impact of the training on programmatic change 6 months post-training. Finally, we will disseminate the tested and adapted training program to the appropriate conduit for training for HDM programs within the state using webconferencing technology.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Home delivered meals (HDM) that are provided to over a million vulnerable homebound individuals are exposed to a host of unique food safety challenges that make them quite susceptible to food contamination. Food is handled many times by different people; from the time it is prepared and packaged to the time it is delivered to the client and then consumed by the client. There are currently no national food safety educational programs that address the unique challenges faced by the HDM programs and which target training of individuals within the continuum of the program from food preparation to food consumption. Hence the need for such a program exists. Our long-term goal is to increase the ability of older adults to live independently at home by reducing risk factors that lead to morbidity and early mortality. The overall objective of this application is to develop, pilot-test, and, evaluate an integrated multifunctional food safety training program targeting the continuum from food preparation; to packaging; to delivery of meals to the home; to proper storage of food within the home, and, to disseminate this program to the network of elderly nutrition programs through distance learning using web conferencing technology. The successful completion of this project is far reaching and could potentially touch the lives of over a million people and decrease the risk of foodborne illness through the HDM program. This in turn may reduce hospitalization, institutionalization and medical care expenditure. <P>
APPROACH: Quantitative and qualitative information obtained from surveys and focus groups will inform the material necessary for inclusion in the training program, assist in collecting best practices and provide a database that will assist in future trainings and program design. The FDA Food Safety Survey will be analyzed to obtain background information and trends over time on food handling and food safety in the home of adults, ages 60 years and over and a survey of 400 randomly selected nutrition sites will provide feedback on food safety policies and procedures and how these are monitored. Focus groups, which will include mostly nutrition food service managers, will be tasked with identifying food safety risk factors for home-delivered meal service, and with identifying key instructional messages and methodology for delivery of the curriculum to HDM staff, volunteers and clients. This totality of information will provide us with a baseline of knowledge to inform the content of our training program. A curriculum titled Safe Flow of Food for Home-Delivered Meals from Preparation to Consumption will be developed and pilot-tested in two pre-determined states, Iowa and Texas. Impact and outcome evaluations will be conducted to measure the increase in knowledge and assess whether adjustment in methods of food preparation and delivery by six (6) months post-training will occur. The food safety curriculum will have widespread exposure to all States in the U.S. through training of the appropriate State representative using web conferencing and through an awareness campaign by MOWAA via its network, annual conference, regional meetings and website. Training materials will be provided to the State Units on Aging and to the Area Agencies on Aging.