Increasing Knowledge with Food Safety Training at Public Health -Dayton & Montgomery County

摘要

Food safety training is an important tool in preventing foodborne illness (Fl), which affects millions of people each year in the United States and around the world and costs billions of dollars. Training gives those working in the food service industry the knowledge and skills necessary to properly handle, cook and serve food. The objectives of this research was to assess changes in knowledge of Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County's (PHDMC) Level One Food Safety Certification program participants, analyze which questions were most often answered incorrectly, and determine whether there was a relationship between quiz scores and primary job responsibility, using pre- and post-quiz training data. The course teaches food safety topics, including handwashing, employee hygiene, correct cooking and holding temperatures, sanitization duties of the person in charge, and others. The participants are offered a quiz at the beginning of the course, and the same quiz is offered after completion of the two-hour training.Pre-training and post-training quiz score data were obtained from approximately 692 participants completing the PHDMC Level One Food Safety Certification program from 2011 to 2013. Paired t-tests were used to evaluate change in scores overall, on individual questions, and by job responsibility. Quiz scores significantly improved both aggregately (20.6%) and in nine out of the ten questions. The temperature-related questions had the most incorrect answers (score range: 38% - 71%) but also showed the mostimprovement (improvement range: 28% - 49%). This research shows that PHDMC's Level One Food Safety Certification class was associated with a change in knowledge of participants from pre- to post-training.