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It is clear that dietitians are in a prime position to reach
some of the most vulnerable consumers, either directly or
indirectly, to have an impact on their risk reducing food
practices during food handling, storage and consumption
in and outside of the home. Despite this, a lack of adequate
food safety knowledge among nutrition students and
gaps in RDs knowledge (35, 40) have been identified, and
RDs are only occasionally providing food safety advice to
vulnerable consumers (10, 12); dietitians are more likely
to provide food safety advice when immune-compromised
patients also have a medical condition that increases their
risk of foodborne infections (10). As only little evidence is
currently available about RDs' beliefs and attitudes toward
their role in providing education about safe food handling,
it is not clear whether dietitians believe it is their role to
provide food safety advice (10). Further exploration of the
potential barriers that may prevent RDs from providing food
safety information and advice, and how confidence can be
improved in this area, is required.
A symposium on teaching food safety to dietitians at the
2018 IAFP European Symposium on Food Safety identified
a need for collaborative research on developing efficient
methods for working with dietitians to facilitate the delivery of food safety information; the symposium resulted in
an international network of like-minded academics who
aspire to integrate effective food safety education into the
dietetics curriculum and ensure appropriate professional
development and continuing education courses to empower dietitians to inform and motivate patients so that they
can implement food safety practices and reduce the risk of
foodborne illness (18).

CONCLUSIONS
Dietitians are well placed to be an important resource
for food safety information and advice, whether directly or
indirectly, for vulnerable populations. The delivery of clinically
applicable food safety advice by adequately trained dietitians
may increase awareness among vulnerable populations about
their susceptibility to foodborne disease and enable them
to implement risk-reducing food safety practices. Available
research is scanty, but it indicates that (i) there are gaps in RDs'
knowledge of food safety which necessitate further exploration,
(ii) there is a lack of consensus about the interpretation of
the dietetic curriculum requirements in institutions that
deliver accredited dietetic training, (iii) there is a need to
better understand trainee dietitians' food safety knowledge,
training experiences and attitudes toward the delivery of food
safety information; and (iv) there is a need to explore the
availability of food safety-related continuing education courses
for RDs. As a group of dietitians, microbiologists and food
safety educators, we have identified an opportunity to work as
an international network of dietetic food safety educators to
strengthen this research area and explore the need to interpret
the dietetic curriculum in a way that shifts the emphasis from
dietitians having knowledge of food microbiology and food
safety legislation to dietitians having clinically applicable skills
to identify and deliver appropriate food safety advice and
information to at-risk patients so as to increase their awareness
of food safety risks and enable development of risk-reducing
food safety practices.

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