Sustainable, Systems-Based Solutions for Ensuring Low-Moisture Food Safety

The overall goal of this project is to accelerate the adoption of a sustainable food safety culture in commodity-based low-moisture food systems (via an integrated, transdisciplinary, systems-based approach, with interconnected and parallel research, extension, and education activities). The long-term objective is to reduce foodborne illnesses, and associated product recalls, linked to low-moisture foods, thereby improving the protection of public health and the economic health of entities of all scales within this industry. In that context, the specific task objectives (integrated and clustered by four unifying Themes) are:Theme 1: Human factors (health, consumers, economics, and culture):1. Quantify public health and economic impacts of illnesses linked to low-moisture foods.2. Evaluate consumers' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to low-moisture food safety, and develop and test intervention/extension/outreach programs and strategies.3. Conduct economic analyses examining the influence of market forces, regulatory changes, and novel technologies on industry stakeholders' food safety behaviors.4. Assess barriers to adopting a food safety culture in the low-moisture food industry (especially for small and very small companies).Theme 2: Pathogen behavior and control:5. Characterize and model pathogen persistence, propagation, transfer, survival, and inactivation through the entire low-moisture food system (harvest-to-consumer).6. Develop improved design standards and novel technologies for hygienic design and sanitation of low-moisture food handling and processing equipment.7. Develop engineering tools and extension resources supporting small and very small companies in implementing measurement systems for critical process factors.Theme 3: Personnel development and decision-support systems (extension and education):8. Develop and evaluate multi-level extension/outreach programs and resources spanning the cultural, technical, scientific, regulatory, and economic domains for industry personnel.9. Develop, implement, and assess formal educational courses in low-moisture food safety systems at the associate-degree (workforce) and graduate (scientific/technical) levels, and involve young professionals in project workshops to expand knowledge and networks.10. Develop and test decision-support tools to enhance industry adoption of optimal food safety interventions at multiple points in the low-moisture food system. Theme 4: Integrated risk and sustainability analyses: 11. Conduct risk analyses that uniquely integrate and link quantitative measures for probability of illnesses, communication efficacy, and management impacts for low-moisture food systems.12. Conduct sustainability analyses of current and alternative/novel food safety interventions at multiple points in the low-moisture food system.