FOOD SAFETY TRAINING FOR FOOD SERVICE WORKERS

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Foodborne diseases in the U.S. affect six to 80 million people in the U.S., cause 9,000 deaths, and cost about five billion dollars annually, indicating a need for food safety education for the nation's 10 million food service workers. We will design a multimedia education program to meet the needs of food service workers, by: 1) structuring the program into easy-to-use modules that can be taken individually or sequentially; 2) allowing users to work at their own pace, based on time, literacy, and computer experience; 3) ensuring that the program focuses on task-specific skills and concepts; 4) ensuring constructive, response-specific feedback, and remedial branching, and; 5) by providing an evaluation for review by the worker's supervisor. Specific objectives of Phase I are to: 1) conduct a food service industry search for information on current food safety training; 2) develop and focus group test elements of a multimedia food safety education program; 3) produce a prototype, and; 4) administer the prototype to food service workers, then survey test for changes in knowledge and behavioral intentions. Results of Phase I will be reported, and used in designing Phase II and the product, that will include an Internet format and a Spanish version. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: Food service customers include: unit level fast food outlets (e.g., Burger King), home meal replacement outlets (e.g., Boston Chicken), casual dining restaurants (e.g., Olive Garden), other restaurants, schools, institutional cafeterias, & other outside-the-home food preparation establishments. The food service industry has more than 10 million employees, or nearly 8% of U.S. workers, and total restaurant employment is expected to be 11 million by 2005. The typical consumer had more than four meals per week away from home in 1996. Restaurants receive 43 cents per dollar spent on food, and have annual sales of more than $300 billion. This product has been assured a place in the National Health Museum's store and catalogue, and the USDA/FDA/NAL food safety training database.