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Self-reported food safety knowledge and behaviour among Home and Consumer Studies students
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics.
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics.
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics.
2016 (English)In: Food Control, ISSN 0956-7135, E-ISSN 1873-7129, Vol. 67, p. 265-272Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Home and Consumer Studies (HCS) should be a suitable place for food safety education as it includes plenty of practical cooking and is compulsory for all students in the Swedish school system. A study among HCS teachers however reveals shortcomings in food safety teaching. A survey regarding food safety knowledge and behaviour among HCS students in school Year 9 was performed at different schools with a new system to collect questionnaire data. A Student Response System was used at the participating schools. The students were to answer the questions by using a small handheld wireless control, a clicker, in the response program Turning Point 2008. The questionnaire included a total of 26 questions and all questions were shown at PowerPoint slides and read out loud to the students. Some trivial questions were asked at the beginning to ensure the method. A total of 529 students from 18 different schools in different parts of Sweden participated in the survey conducted between September 2013 and January 2014. The survey results were evaluated and analysed using SPSS by performing cross-tabulation and chi-square tests. This study reveals that the students' self-reported food safety knowledge and behaviour are inadequate. Important risk areas need to be highlighted in HCS teaching. Boys reported to be significantly more at risk in terms of food safety regarding the handling of risk foods, reheating and cleaning. Especially for boys who reported seldom cook at home HCS would be extra valuable. This study also indicates the importance of reflection in relation to the hygiene routines which are common in the HCS context. The outcome of this study is that students might leave school without even basic food safety knowledge.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2016. Vol. 67, p. 265-272
Keywords [en]
food safety, students, home and consumer studies, behvaiour, risk, knowledge
National Category
Social Sciences
Research subject
Food, Nutrition and Dietetics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-283122DOI: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2016.03.014ISI: 000375163800034OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-283122DiVA, id: diva2:918525
Projects
Nationella Forskarskolan i Hem och Konsumentkunskap (NFHK)Available from: 2016-04-11 Created: 2016-04-11 Last updated: 2017-11-30Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Food Safety Learning in Home and Consumer Studies: Teachers' and Students' Perspectives
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Food Safety Learning in Home and Consumer Studies: Teachers' and Students' Perspectives
2017 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The aim of this thesis was to explore food safety as part of Home and consumer studies (HCS) education in Swedish compulsory school.

Firstly, a nationwide web-based questionnaire was performed among HCS teachers to obtain an overall picture of their knowledge, behaviour and attitudes regarding food safety.  The second study was a questionnaire among school Year 9 students, where the data were collected using a student response system. The questions were related to the students’ food safety knowledge and behaviour, as well as cooking habits and sources of food safety knowledge and trust. Finally, qualitative interviews were performed among HCS teachers regarding their didactic choices of teaching content.

The results indicated a routine behaviour connected to cleaning practices and teaching regarding different perishable food to differ between teachers. The students’ food safety knowledge and behaviour were reported to be inadequate, especially among boys, and that students might leave school without having learnt even basic food safety principles. Mothers and thereby the home were reported to be an important as well as a trusted source of food safety knowledge, especially among the girls. Boys reported HCS to also be an important as well as trusted source, especially students that rarely or never reported to cook at home. For those students HCS must be seen as particularly valuable. To increase the students’ learning, the teaching needs to be related to the students’ everyday practices and to be more reflective in order for it to be practiced outside the HCS classroom. The teachers’ didactic choices could imply consequences for the students’ food safety learning and a need for more education and updated information for the teachers was noticed.

In summary, the results indicate that risk areas related to all the Four Cs in Food safety (Cooking, Cleaning, Chilling and avoidance of Cross-contamination) need to be highlighted in HCS teaching and for food safety to become a conscious didactic choice for the teachers.  As teaching regarding food safety in HCS seem to differ it needs to be highlighted in HCS policy documents to ensure equivalent food safety learning for all students in compulsory school.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2017. p. 81
Series
Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Social Sciences, ISSN 1652-9030 ; 139
Keywords
Learning, Food safety, Education, Didactic, Risk, Food hygiene, Trust, Students', Teachers', Compulsory school
National Category
Social Sciences
Research subject
Food, Nutrition and Dietetics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-317337 (URN)978-91-554-9849-8 (ISBN)
Public defence
2017-05-05, A1:111a, BMC, Husargatan 3, Uppsala, 13:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2017-04-13 Created: 2017-03-13 Last updated: 2017-04-21

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Lange, MarieGöranzon, HelenMarklinder, Ingela

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