Risk Analysis: Food Safety Training and Health Education: Principles and Methods

It is increasingly recognized that food safety is a human and behavioral, as well as a microbiological problem. Understanding food handler behavior is best undertaken using social cognition or other behavioral models. Before they can behave hygienically food handlers need to be provided with the correct food safety knowledge. Training has a vital role to play in commercial food businesses to improve food safety, with separate health education strategies needed to be targeted at consumers. Having the correct knowledge is the first step in achieving food safety competence and the preparation of safe food. However food handlers need to be motivated to implement the knowledge they have gained. This in turn is linked, in businesses, to the prevailing food safety culture. For training to be effective, it needs to be planned and implemented appropriately.