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Extract
Assessing the effectiveness of food worker training in Florida: opportunities and challenges.
Introduction
From a public health standpoint, it is important to assess the effectiveness of food worker training programs in preventing foodborne outbreaks (McNamara, 1999). Food worker responsibilities include handling and preparing food that will be served to consumers, and most professionals agree that food worker training and education are essential in preventing foodborne disease by promoting good food safety and hygiene (Cotterchio, Gunn, Cofill, Tormey, & Barry, 1998; Riben et al., 1994). Until recently in Florida, only food managers were mandated to be certified in food safety and sanitation. The assumption was that they would in turn train food workers employed in their establishments. In the year 2000, changes were made to Florida law requiring training of all food workers in food establishments inspected by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR). The change in training requirements, coupled with existing data on foodborne-disease outbreaks and cases compiled by the Florida Department of Health (FDOH), provided a unique opportunity to explore methods of assessing the effectiveness of food worker training requirements. This paper discusses the challenges of measuring the effectiveness of food worker training, various methodologies that might be considered, and the results of utilizing trends in foodborne-outbreak contributing factors to evaluate Florida's recent change in food worker training requirements. Backgroun...See the full content of this document
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