A Tri-State Project to Identify Problem Food Safety Behaviors and Customize Educational Delivery Methods for Improving Them

<ol> <li>Managers will observationally survey food service and food retail employees to identify problem behaviors that may contribute to the incidence of foodborne illnesses. (Research)
<li>The impact of identified food safety behaviors or the interventions for those behaviors will be assessed experimentally. (Research)
<li>Extension food safety educators, teachers and stakeholders will participate in a university graduate course and laboratory that is structured around food safety issues and identified problem behaviors. (Education)
<li>Extension food safety educators in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina and other ServSafer certified managers will deliver educational programs that target unsafe behaviors and are customized to meet learning styles of the target audience including ethnic groups and hard-to-reach individuals. (Extension)
<li>Certification and train-the-trainer training of retail food managers, food service managers, and Extension educators will continue (Extension).</ol>
<p>
A work group for the Extension part of the project will be assembled. The team will consist of Extension food safety specialists from SC, NC and GA and several county Extension agents who deliver strong food safety programs. Managers, teachers and additional agents will be recruited for ServSafe manager certification. Each manager who participates in manager certification will use the ServSafe employee training outline received at the certification training to teach 20 of their employees. Certified managers in the project will be trained to administer the observational employee behavior survey and training needs assessment. The project team will adapt or develop food safety education materials based on survey responses. Training needs of Chinese-speaking workers will be determined by engaging a trained interviewer, who speaks either Cantonese or Mandarin to conduct six focus groups in NC with between 6-10 Chinese-speaking foodservice workers participating in each focus group session. Employee training will begin when materials are customized for specific employees and the managers are trained in how to deliver materials and document their impact. Four programs-two programs (one in Mandarin and one in Cantonese) in SC and NC will be delivered using distance conferencing technology. Impact data will be gathered at various points in the project, including pre-tests on manager and employee ServSafer programs, national exams for managers, and follow-up surveys with managers to determine which food safety behaviors are regularly utilized by employees. Near the end of the three-year project, Clemson University will host a symposium for food safety stakeholders across the Southern region. Results of the project will also be forwarded to the Extension food safety contact in each state. Managers who have participated in food safety training will observationally survey employees both before and after food safety trainings for problem food safety behaviors. Handwashing and glove handling behaviors: Three experimental protocols will be conducted to determine effects of different hand washing and glove handling practices on transmission of bacteria in food environments.</p>
<p>
The goal of the education component is to establish a course in Food Safety that will teach the scientific basis for ensuring the safety of the American food supply at a convenient time and in a suitable format for biology, home economics and culinary arts teachers, retail food industry managers and extension agents. Materials will be developed into an asynchronous, distance-learning program in Food Safety to reach a large target audience. Course materials will be developed as individual modules that can be used separately for extension agent training presentations or combined as a graduate-level course for university credit. An accompanying laboratory manual demonstrating the principles of food safety will be developed. Modules for the lecture and laboratory course will be developed during the first year. Customizing food safety education programs for audience needs would make delivery more effective and allow participants to gain food safety knowledge more readily.</p>