The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #74129

Paul F Magnant, MBA, CCE, CEC¹, Nina Ann Frola, MUS², and Stacey B Plichta, ScD². (1) Old Dominion Universtiy, 3909 Davis Street, Norfolk, VA 23513, 757-858-2070, paddiebk6@aol.com, (2) College of Health Sciences, Old Dominion University, 105 Spong Hall, Norfolk, VA 23529

This study examines the effectiveness of a graphic organizer in teaching food safety to culinary students. Americans consume 54 million meals outside the home each year, and rely on professional food handlers to protect them from food-borne disease. Each year 76 million people suffer an event, 325,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die. As culinary students usually do not have strong academic backgrounds, it is vital to find effective methods for teaching food safety. This study employed a retrospective case-comparison design. In year 1, the sanitation course was taught without an organizer (n=75), in year 2, one was used (n=95). Data were collected on SES, attendance, prior college,absences, and the national sanitation certification exam score. Excellence was defined as a score of ‘90’ or better. A multiple logistic regression model examined the effect of the organizer when other potential predictors were controlled. Overall, 39% of the students achieved excellence on the exam. Those using the graphic organizer were 16 times more likely to achieve excellence than others; this was after controlling for SES, absences from class, previous college, and time of class. Older age and previous college were predictive of academic excellence. These results strongly support the use of graphic organizers in teaching food safety to professional food handlers. More research is needed to establish the effectiveness of the graphic organizer in other courses, but it does have promise as an innovative teaching technique.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will be able to:
• Articulate the importance of teaching food safety to professional food handlers.
• Construct teaching tools that appeal to visual and tactile learners.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of a graphic organizer.

Keywords: Food Safety, Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.