Food Protection Trends - August 2008 - (Page 585)

Copyright© 2008, International Association for Food Protection 6200 Aurora Ave., Suite 200W, Des Moines, IA 50322-2864 Food Protection Trends, Vol. 28, No. 7, Pages 585–591 Food Safety Awareness: Concerns, Practices, and Openness to Change of College Students with Health and Non-Health Majors LINDA YARROW,* VALENTINA M. REMIG and MARY MECK HIGGINS 211 Justin Hall, Dept. of Human Nutrition, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506–1407, USA INTRODUCTION SUMMARy The objective was to determine college students’ food safety awareness, including concerns, food practices, and openness to change. Participants were a convenience sample of thirty health and non-health majors who were upperclassmen with an average age of 21, primarily white non-Hispanic females. Using focused discussion groups, students’ food safety knowledge and practices, including food handling, preparation, storage, thermometer use, risky food consumption, and willingness to change undesirable practices, were examined. Students perceived low risk for foodborne illness, reported that they seldomly used food thermometers, and used color of meat and juices to determine doneness. Non-health majors thawed foods according to undesirable practices observed in the childhood home, most of which are no longer recommended. Perceived and stated barriers to implementing recommended food safety procedures for health and non-health majors included cost, time and convenience. It is concluded that college students, especially non-health majors, had low food safety awareness and many unsafe foodhandling practices. Students were open to economical and time efficient changes in practices. A peer-reviewed article *Author for correspondence: 785.532.5508; Fax: 785.532.3132 E-mail: lyarrow@ksu.edu Foodborne illness is a major health threat in the United States. Although much food safety research has focused on the food industry and the general population (1, 4, 6, 9, 12), little research is available concerning college students’ food safety knowledge, practices, and/ or risk for foodborne illness. Prior to this study, no investigators had reported use of food safety discussion groups as a method of obtaining information about food safety practices from college students. Previous methods of obtaining food safety information from college students have been through written surveys (2, 3, 7, 11, 15). Within the limited data focusing on college students, food safety researchers concluded that undergraduate students engaged in unsafe food practices, including improper food handling and consumption of high risk foods (11). Unklesbay et al. reported that students with health majors had higher food safety knowledge and more positive food safety attitude scores than non-health majors, but found no difference in self-reported food safety practices scores between the two groups (15). A study by Garayoa et al. also found that students with food safety knowledge nevertheless engaged in AUGUST 2008 | FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS 585

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Food Protection Trends - August 2008

Food Protection Trends - August 2008 Contents Sustaining Members Lone Star Perspective from Your President Commentary from the Executive Director Hand Hygiene in the Food Industry: Resolving an Enigma? Food Safety Awareness: Concerns, Practices, and Openness to Change of College Students with Health and Non-Health Majors Highlights from the Brazil International Food Safety Conference Audiovisual Library Listing Audiovisual Library Order Form New Members Updates News Industry Products Coming Events Advertising Index Journal of Food Protection� Table of Contents Booklet Order Form Membership Application

Food Protection Trends - August 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.