Food Safety for Healthy Missouri Families: Evaluation of Program Effectiveness

Introduction

Millions of American families are affected each year by food-borne illnesses (Centers for Disease Control, 2001). According to Taylor and Curtis (1999), education in basic food safety principles is the key to decreasing the incidence of food-borne illness in the United States.

Many of the problems evident in food safety education are related to the general paucity of agricultural awareness, especially among urban or impoverished populations (Squires & Comer, 2000; Nordstrom, Wilson, Richards, Coe, Fivek, & Brown, 1999; National Research Council, 1988). This lack of awareness can lead to food myths, mass hysteria, and acts of violence (Guterman, 2000). According to Frick, Birkenholz, and Machtmes (1995), "Consumers, as well as policy makers, need to be agriculturally literate in order to respond appropriately as issues arise" (p. 44).

To address these issues, a holistic education program, Food Safety for Healthy Missouri Families, was developed to both teach food safety information and foster agricultural literacy in young consumers, especially those consumers living in impoverished communities, where much of the available food safety information does not reach. This article is an evaluation of that program's effectiveness.

Purpose

The purpose of the small pilot study reported here was to determine the level of understanding and general knowledge about food safety of youth participating in a 4-week summer enrichment program. The objectives of the study were to:

1. Determine proficient understanding and general knowledge about food safety before the program.
2. Determine participant understanding and general knowledge about food safety after completing the program.
3. Identify how participant knowledge and understanding about food safety changed over the course of the program.

Methods and Procedures

Population and Sample

The population included 22 inner-city youth from low-income families, ranging from 6 to 16 years of age. Most of the children participating in the program were what Woodard and Fine (1991) describe as "latch key" kids, children who come home before their parents get off of work and are in a "self supervised situation." Many of these children were often responsible for preparing meals for themselves and their siblings. The groups were divided based upon age, with one group containing children ages 6-12 and the second group containing children ages 13-16.

Instrument

Questions were developed using food safety literature, lesson objectives activity sheets, USDA surveys, Extension, and other food safety educational programs, as a framework. Questions where developed and incorporated into a survey instrument designed to examine the students' knowledge and perceptions about agriculture and food safety. Questions were selected based on the assumption they met one of three criteria:

1. General knowledge and perceptions about agriculture,
2. Food safety practices in the home, and
3. Knowledge and perceptions about food-borne illnesses.

Each question was placed into one of five categories:

• Kitchen safety
• Harmful bacteria
• Common myths
• Agricultural perceptions
• Shopping practices

The survey was presented to students as trivia questions in a game show format in order to make the activity fun and exciting, minus the pressured feelings of a regular classroom (Figure 1). The groups were presented with the questions on the first day of the summer enrichment program and again at the end of 4 weeks to determine changes, if any, in behaviors and knowledge about the subject matter.

Figure 1.
Survey/Trivia Questions

Students were divided into teams and instructed to work in cooperative groups to answer the trivia questions, According to Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (1991), when students work in small groups, learning is maximized. As an incentive, the groups were told that the group with the most points would receive prizes. The entire process was video taped, and each student was coded.

Analysis of Data

A content analysis of video data was conducted to determine prior knowledge of students before participating. Each student's answers to the trivia questions were recorded and evaluated. Frequencies of correct answers were calculated and summarized using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

Results and Discussion

The results indicated a lack of food safety and agricultural awareness among both participant age groups before the program. The pre-test revealed that both groups lacked knowledge about food safety and agricultural issues; however, the younger students were more familiar with kitchen safety issues than the older students. The reason for the difference was revealed during discussions. Many younger students reported that kitchen safety was addressed in health classes during the recent school term. Table 1 presents the percentage of correct answers to the pre-test and the post-test, and the amount of change exhibited by both age groups.

Table 1.
Pre-test and Post-Test Responses and Difference in Percentages of Food Safety Knowledge Before and After Participating in the Program

During the pre-test game of both groups, discussions turned into heated debate over question # 9, Eating cake batter or raw cookie dough can make you sick, and question # 24, Fruits and vegetables are cleaned before displaying. The majority of the students stated that eating raw cookie dough had never made them sick, and many of the same group believed with conviction that fruits and vegetables on display in the grocery store were clean and could safely be consumed while shopping. One student in the younger group (ages 6-12) stated that she regularly practiced sampling grapes from the stand while grocery shopping, meaning that she often consumed fruits without washing them.

Post-test results revealed vast improvement in many of the practices after students had participated in the program. Some showed differences as high as 91%, with only a very few falling below 50%. However, certain topics--irradiation, eating raw cookie dough, and perceptions about the way food is handled by the grocery store--showed little or no change. From group discussions, it was ascertained that most of the students continued to associate irradiation with biotechnology and/or radiation, which some stated could make a person ill.

Students held to the belief that eating raw cookie dough or cake batter would not make a person sick and stated that they would continue the practice until they either got sick or witnessed someone get sick. Several students continued to believe that grocery stores clean fruits and vegetables before putting them on display and that they were therefore safe to consume or sample before purchasing. Others stated that they believed this was only true for grocery stores in or near the "good part of town" (stores located in higher economic communities).

Conclusions, Recommendations, and Implications

Millions of American families are affected by food-borne illnesses each year. Many of these problems are related to the lack of awareness about agriculture. Pre-tests revealed that neither youth group in the study reported here was knowledgeable about food safety and agricultural issues. However, the younger students were more familiar than the older students with kitchen safety issues. Group discussions revealed that many of the students in the younger group had recently addressed kitchen safety in health classes during the school year. This implies that the curriculum being used in the health classes has been somewhat effective with the younger students; however, their overall lack of knowledge suggests that more is needed. This also implies that older students need to be exposed to this information.

Post-test results showed dramatic changes in behaviors and beliefs. However, perceptions towards irradiation, eating cookie dough, and food in grocery stores remain a concern. The study indicates that there is a lack of knowledge about food safety and agricultural issues among inner city youth living in the impoverished communities of Mid-Missouri, showing a need for more similar programming.

Another conclusion drawn from the study is that some misperceptions and behaviors concerning the safety of food are deeply engrained. Based upon the findings and conclusions drawn, the following recommendations are made.

• Future studies should focus on finding more effective ways of challenging students misconceptions about the food system and the quality or safety of the products they consume.
  
  
• Additional efforts are needed to determine food safety practices of urban communities.

Although efforts are being made to educate the public about food safety, for many reasons, this information often does not reach segments of the population where poverty is rampant and the need is greatest. It is essential that this information be delivered to all segments of the population if we are going to alleviate the continuing problem of food-borne illnesses.

References

Centers for Disease Control (2001). Health topics [On-line]. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/

Frick, J., Birkenholz, J., Machtmes, K. (1995). Rural and urban inner-city high school students knowledge and perception of agriculture. Journal of Agricultural Education, 36, 4.

Guterman, L. (2000, April 14). Scientists leave the lab to defend bioengineered food. The Chronicle of Higher Education. pp. A29(32), 32.

National Research Council, Board of Agriculture, Committee on Agricultural Education in Secondary Education. (1988). Understanding agriculture: New directions for education. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Nordstrom, W., Coe, R., Fivek, & Brown (1999). Students' attitudes toward animal-derived products and services and how they affect society and the environment. Journal of Agricultural Education, 40(4), 10-19.

Squires, S., & Comer, M. (2000). Food safety for global health. Paper presented the 2000 X World Congress of Rural Sociology XXXVIII Brazilian Congress of Rural Economy and Sociology, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Taylor C. M, & Curtis, A. (1999). Development and design of a "gateway" to food safety information on the Internet for Extension educators. Journal of Extension [On-line]. 37(2). Available at: http://www.joe.org/joe/1999april/a5.html

Woodard L. J., Fine, M. (1991). Long-term effects of self-supervised and adult-supervised child care arrangements on personality traits, emotional adjustment, and cognitive development. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. 12, 73-85.