Consumer food safety education study reveals challenges, opportunities

Specifically, 90% of food safety educators who responded to a PFSE survey said they connect with consumers via face-to-face meetings and presentations. The analysis of current activity and initiatives in food safety education across various sectors was conducted on behalf of PFSE by Benjamin Chapman, extension food safety specialist and associate professor at North Carolina State University (NCSU).

“In a digital age, it’s important to recognize the prevalence and impact of face-to-face contact between educators and consumers,”​ said Shelley Feist, PFSE executive director, in an interview with FoodProductionDaily. “That will help us determine how to focus our existing resources and what types of additional resources we should develop.”​

Whither food manufacturers and retailers?

The environmental scan was designed to answer these questions: 1) Who are the key food safety educators in the US? 2) What do they do and how do they do it? and 3) Do they evaluate the impact of their programs?

Nearly 400 entities responded to the survey. Most of the participants represented academia (35%, three-quarters of whom are in cooperative extension), public health professionals (21%), K-12 educators (13%), federal government agencies (12%), and non-profit organizations (12%).

Industry trade groups accounted for just 3% of respondents, with food retailers making up an additional 3%. Other groups, such as food banks and congregate nutrition programs, came in at 2%.

Regarding the low participation rate among food industry groups and food retailers, Feist said, “We really worked hard to push this survey to various sectors, but there was a low response from those groups.”​

In his analysis of the survey results, Dr. Chapman noted, “Many individuals from the food retail and industry trade group sectors acknowledged that they did not participate in the survey because they are not educating consumers.”​

Thus, one of the limitations of the study is that there was “not enough representation among these sectors to consider their representatives’ survey responses significant,”​ he added.

Identity crisis

Feist said one issue may be that individuals contacted for the survey self-selected which sector they belong to. Those who said “food retail” included chain and independent restaurants, a produce grower/distributor, and a wholesaler. Participants who self-identified as “industry trade groups” included consumer product companies, advocacy groups, and marketing or trade services.

“We know there are food retailers doing a great job of food safety education,”​ Feist said. “In fact, Kroger and Publix discussed their programs in a breakout session at our recent conference.”​

Compared with grocery chains, the businesses that identified as “food retailers” in this survey typically do little in the way of consumer food safety education.

Note: Additional analysis of the PFSE/NCSU survey will be provided in a separate article. A survey overview is available on the PFSE website.​