Food for thought: effective evidence-based brochure and comic book interventions designed for restaurant food handlers.

摘要

Foodborne disease outbreaks are frequently attributed to restaurants in the United States. A lack of food safety knowledge can lead to unsafe food handling behaviors that put customers at risk for food poisoning. We compared a straightforward brochure and illustrated story-based comic book to determine if one of these educational interventions was superior to the other in improving restaurant food handler knowledge relevant to prevention of foodborne illness outbreaks. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine baseline knowledge and identify which knowledge questions were most frequently answered incorrectly. An educational brochure and a comic book were then created in English and Spanish, targeting the knowledge gaps identified from the baseline knowledge study. Ninety-eight restaurants (220 food handlers) participated in the follow-up knowledge survey and were randomized into the comic book, brochure or control groups. Overall knowledge score increased significantly by 10 percentage points (from 73% to 83%) for the comic book group and by 6 percentage points (from 75% to 81%) for the brochure group, whereas no significant increase occurred in the control group. English-speaking food handlers in the comic book and brochure groups and Spanish-speaking food handlers in the comic book group showed significant improvement. Nearly 100% of the participants in the intervention groups stated that the restaurant should provide the educational materials to staff. These data demonstrate that an educational brochure and comic book can improve food safety knowledge; however, they are not equally effective among all restaurant food handlers.