Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To measure the food safety knowledge, attitudes and self-reported practices of high school students in Ontario.
METHODS: We administered a school-wide paper survey to the student body (n = 2,860) of four Ontario high schools. We developed the survey by selecting questions from existing, validated questionnaires, prioritizing questions that aligned with the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education’s educational messages and the food safety objectives from the 2013 Ontario High School Curriculum.
RESULTS: One in five students reported currently handling food in commercial or public-serving venues; of these, 45.1% had ever taken a course that taught them how to prepare food (e.g., food and nutrition classes, food handler certification). Food safety knowledge among respondents was low. For example, 17.3% knew that the best way to determine whether hamburgers were cooked enough to eat was to measure the temperature with a food thermometer. Despite low knowledge, most respondents (72.7%) reported being confident that they could cook safe, healthy meals for themselves and their families. Safe food handling practices were frequently self-reported. Most students (86.5%) agreed that being able to cook safe, healthy meals was an important life skill, although their interest in learning about safe food handling and concern about foodborne disease were less pronounced.
CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that food safety knowledge is low, yet confidence in preparing safe, healthy meals is high, among high school students. Because work and volunteer opportunities put students in contact with both the public and food, this group is important to target for increased education about safe food handling.
Keywords: Food safety, food handling, students, education, adolescent, Ontario
Résumé
OBJECTIFS : Mesurer les connaissances, les attitudes et les pratiques autodéclarées d’élèves du secondaire de l’Ontario en matière de salubrité des aliments.
MÉTHODE : Nous avons administré un sondage sur papier à tous les élèves (n = 2 860) de quatre écoles secondaires de l’Ontario. Nous avons élaboré le sondage en choisissant des questions de questionnaires validés existants, en privilégiant les questions conformes aux messages éducatifs du Partenariat canadien pour la salubrité des aliments et aux objectifs de salubrité des aliments des programmes d’études secondaires de l’Ontario en 2013.
RÉSULTATS : Un élève sur cinq a déclaré manipuler des aliments dans des établissements commerciaux ou de service à la clientèle; de ce nombre, 45,1% avaient déjà suivi un cours de préparation des aliments (classes sur l’alimentation et la nutrition, formation des préposés à la manipulation des aliments). Les connaissances en salubrité des aliments chez les répondants étaient faibles. Par exemple, seulement 17,3% savaient que le meilleur moyen de déterminer si des hamburgers sont assez cuits pour être mangés est d’en mesurer la température avec un thermomètre de cuisson. Malgré leur manque de connaissances, la plupart des répondants (72,7%) ont dit être sûrs de pouvoir cuire des repas sains et salubres pour eux-mêmes et leur famille. Ils ont souvent déclaré avoir des pratiques de manipulation hygiénique des aliments. La plupart des élèves (86,5%) convenaient que d’être capables de cuire des repas sains et salubres était une compétence essentielle, mais leur intérêt pour l’apprentissage de la manipulation hygiénique des aliments et leur préoccupation pour les intoxications alimentaires étaient moins prononcés.
CONCLUSION : Nos constatations montrent que les connaissances sur la salubrité des aliments sont faibles chez les élèves du secondaire, mais que ces élèves sont très sûrs de pouvoir préparer des repas sains et salubres. Étant donné que les occasions d’emploi et de bénévolat mettent les élèves en contact avec le public et les aliments, il est important de cibler ce groupe pour accroître leurs connaissances de la manipulation hygiénique des aliments.
Mots Clés: salubrité des aliments, manipulation des aliments, étudiants, enseignement, adolescent, Ontario
Footnotes
Acknowledgements: The authors thank the students and staff of the participating schools for their support of this study. Andrew Papadopoulos (University of Guelph) contributed to early ideas for this work. The research was funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ Food Safety Research Program (FS2013-1843; grant awarded to S. Majowicz). The research built off an existing research platform (COMPASS) supported by a bridge grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (INMD) through the “Obesity — Interventions to Prevent or Treat” priority funding awards (OOP-110788; grant awarded to S. Leatherdale) and an operating grant from the CIHR Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH) (MOP-114875; grant awarded to S. Leatherdale). Drs. Leatherdale and Hammond are Chairs in Applied Public Health, funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) in partnership with CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (INMHA) and IPPH.
Conflict of Interest: None to declare.
References
- 1.Thomas MK, Murray R, Flockhart L, Pintar K, Pollari F, Fazil A, et al. Estimates of the burden of foodborne illness in Canada for 30 specified pathogens and unspecified agents circa 2006. Foodborne Pathog Dis. 2013;10(7):639–48. doi: 10.1089/fpd.2012.1389. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Byrd-Bredbenner C, Berning J, Martin-Biggers J, Quick V. Food safety in home kitchens: A synthesis of the literature. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2013;10(9):4060–85. doi: 10.3390/ijerph10094060. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 3.Lee MB, Middleton D. Enteric illness in Ontario Canada, from 1997 to 2001. J Food Prot. 2003;66(6):953–61. doi: 10.4315/0362-028X-66.6.953. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 4.Nesbitt A, Majowicz SE, Finley R, Marshall B, Pollari F, Sargeant J, et al. High-risk food consumption and food safety practices in a Canadian community. J Food Prot. 2009;7(12):2575–86. doi: 10.4315/0362-028X-72.12.2575. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 5.Byrd-Bredbenner C, Maurer J, Wheatley V, Schaffner D, Bruhn C, Blalock L. Food safety self-reported behaviors and cognitions of young adults: Results of a national study. J Food Prot. 2007;70(8):1917–26. doi: 10.4315/0362-028X-70.8.1917. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 6.Morrone M, Rathbun A. Health education and food safety behavior in the university setting. J Environ Health. 2003;65(7):9–15. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 7.Unklesbay N, Sneed J, Toma R. College students’ attitudes, practices, and knowledge of food safety. J Food Prot. 1998;61(9):1175–80. doi: 10.4315/0362-028X-61.9.1175. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 8.Abbot JM, Policastro P, Bruhn C, Schaffner DW, Byrd-Bredbenner C. Development and evaluation of a university campus-based food safety media campaign for young adults. J Food Prot. 2012;75(6):1117–24. doi: 10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-11-506. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 9.Haapala I, Probart C. Food safety knowledge perceptions, and behaviors among middle school students. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2004;36(2):71–76. doi: 10.1016/S1499-4046(06)60136-X. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 10.Stein SE, Dirks BP, Quinlan JJ. Assessing and addressing safe food handling knowledge attitudes, and behaviors of college undergraduates. J Food Sci Educ. 2010;9:47–52. doi: 10.1111/j.1541-4329.2010.00092.x. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
- 11.Majowicz SE, Doré K, Flint JA, Edge V, Read S, Buffett C, et al. Magnitude and distribution of acute self-reported gastrointestinal illness in a Canadian community. Epidemiol Infect. 2004;132(4):607–17. doi: 10.1017/S0950268804002353. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 12.Waltner-Toews D. Food, Sex, and Salmonella: Why our Food is Making Us Sick. edition. Vancouver, BC: First Greystone Books; 2008. [Google Scholar]
- 13.Eves A, Bielby G, Egan B, Lumbers ML, Raats MM, Adams MR. Food hygiene knowledge and self-reported behaviours of UK school children (4–14 years) Br Food J. 2006;108(9):706–20. doi: 10.1108/00070700610688359. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
- 14.Fischer ARH, Frewer LJ, Nauta MJ. Toward improving food safety in the domestic environment: A multi-item Rasch scale for the measurement of the safety efficacy of domestic food handling practices. Risk Anal. 2006;26(5):1323–38. doi: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2006.00813.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 15.Rebellato S, Cholewa S, Chow J, Poon D. Impact of PROTON a food handler certification course on food handlers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. J Food Safety. 2011;32(1):129–33. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-4565.2011.00359.x. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
- 16.Leatherdale ST, Brown KS, Carson V, Childs RA, Dubin JA, Elliott SJ, et al. The COMPASS study: A longitudinal hierarchical research platform for evaluating natural experiments related to changes in school- level programs policies and built environment resources. BMC Public Health. 2014;14:331. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-14-331. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 17.Leatherdale ST, Cole A. Examining the impact of changes in school tobacco control policies and programs on current smoking and susceptibility to future smoking among youth in the first two years of the COMPASS study: looking back to move forward. Tob Induc Dis. 2015;13(1):8. doi: 10.1186/s12971-015-0031-1. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 18.Yarrow L, Remig VM, Higgins MM. Food safety educational intervention positively influences college students’ food safety attitudes beliefs, knowledge, and self-reported practices. J Environ Health. 2009;71(6):30–35. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 19.Lynch RA, Steen MD, Pritchard TJ, Buzzell PR, Pintauro SJ. Delivering food safety education to middle school students using a web-based, interactive, multimedia, computer program. J Food Sci Educ. 2008;7(2):35–42. doi: 10.1111/j.1541-4329.2007.00046.x. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
- 20.Byrd-Bredbenner C, Wheately V, Schaffner D, Bruhn C, Blalock L, Maurer J. Development and implementation of a food safety knowledge instrument. J Food Sci Educ. 2007;6(3):46–55. doi: 10.1111/j.1541-4329.2007.00029.x. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
- 21.Byrd-Bredbenner C, Wheatley V, Schaffner D, Bruhn C, Blalock L, Maurer J. Development of food safety psychosocial questionnaires for young adults. J Food Sci Educ. 2007;6(2):30–37. doi: 10.1111/j.1541-4329.2007.00021.x. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
- 22.Government of Ontario. The Ontario Curriculum Grades 9 to 12: Social Sciences and Humanities. 2013. [Google Scholar]
- 23.Rogers WH. Regression standard errors in clustered samples. Stata Technical Bulletin 13:19-23. 1993;3:88–94. [Google Scholar]
- 24.Mody RK, Meyer S, Trees E, White PL, Nguyen T, Sowadsky R, et al. Outbreak of Salmonella enterica serotype I 4,5,12:i:- infections: The challenges of hypothesis generation and microwave cooking. Epidemiol Infect. 2014;142(5):1050–60. doi: 10.1017/S0950268813001787. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 25.Currie A, MacDougall L, Aramini J, Gaulin C, Ahmed R, Isaacs S. Frozen chicken nuggets and strips and eggs are leading risk factors for Salmonella Heidelberg infections in Canada. Epidemiol Infect. 2005;133(5):809–16. doi: 10.1017/S0950268805004383. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 26.Abbot JM, Byrd-Bredbenner C, Schaffner D, Bruhn CM, Blalock L. Comparison of food safety cognitions and self-reported food-handling behaviors with observed food safety behaviors of young adults. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009;63(4):572–79. doi: 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602961. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 27.Kendall PA, Elsbernd A, Sinclair K, Schroeder M, Chen G, Bergmann V, et al. Observation versus self-report: validation of a consumer food behavior questionnaire. J Food Prot. 2004;67(11):2578–86. doi: 10.4315/0362-028X-67.11.2578. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 28.Redmond EC, Griffith CJ. A comparison and evaluation of research methods used in consumer food safety studies. Int Journal Consumer Studies. 2003;27(1):17–33. doi: 10.1046/j.1470-6431.2003.00283.x. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
- 29.Service Canada. Client Segment Profile Youth Aged 15 to 29, Ontario. 2014. [Google Scholar]
- 30.Government of Ontario. YOUTHCONNECT.CA. Available at: http://www.youth-connect.ca/htdocs/english/getinvolved/whatasp#food (Accessed June 25, 2015).