Food Protection Trends - September/October 2016 - 369

30 Number of Responses* 25 20 15 10 5 0 Bacteria Washing Hands Washing Produce Animals Others Topics *Majority of responding parents indicated > 1 category/topic. Figure 3. Categories and topics represented on the parent/guardian follow-up questionnaire (n = 45) garden-related food safety increased, from pre- to postintervention, across all grades. Implementation of the FSSGP with first- through fifth-grade students could be used to increase overall garden-related food safety knowledge. While first-grade students' knowledge increased significantly, these students scored significantly lower than those in the other four grades on both the pre- and post-test. The lower scores could be due to lower reading levels (5) or the complexity of the program information. Many of the firstgrade students were unable to read, and despite the reading of both assessments aloud, misunderstanding and/or misinterpretation of questions could have occurred. The FSSGP may be less suitable for first graders than for those in second through fifth grades. However, it still had a significant impact on knowledge of first graders, although it was lower than for the other four grades. Overall, the students became proficient (> 80%) (29) in the school garden food safety material as a result of the intervention. More specifically, prior to the intervention, more than half of students indicated that it was acceptable to eat produce directly out of the garden, without washing it. Following the intervention, 80% of the students answered the question correctly, indicating that eating produce directly from the garden without washing it was unsafe. The consequence of eating directly from the garden without washing is an increased risk for foodborne illness. Since children have a heightened susceptibility to foodborne illness, food safety education prior to engaging in school garden activities would be desirable. While all categories reflected a significant increase in knowledge, the container category appeared to have the highest pre- and post-test scores. However, the interpretation of this result is unclear, since this category had only one question, whereas the other three categories had three questions each. Results may have been different had more questions been asked in this category. The constraints of a 10-question assessment resulted in an unequal distribution of category questions. However, based on previous food safety knowledge assessments for elementary-aged students, a short assessment was regarded as optimal (6, 28). It has been well established that students enjoy learning and retain information better if practically or experientially applied (6, 8, 39). In previous studies, students who participated in experiential-based food safety programs rated activities highly (8, 17, 28). This study produced similar results; the majority of the students rated all activities as satisfactory (okay) or better while simultaneously and significantly increasing their knowledge. Faccio and Costa (8) found that September/October Food Protection Trends 369

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