Online Program

Oral

This session presents important and novel findings about food safety, agricultural production, and environmental health. The first three presentations examine sources of food safety hazards at various points along the agricultural production process. The first talk examines microbial contamination of produce from production to post-harvest handling, emphasizing the importance of handwashing and attention to packing shed environment in reducing contamination. The second presentation describes application of cutting edge microbial source tracking methods to produce rinses, irrigation water, and hand rinse samples. These methods can provide information about what animal species (including humans) may have originated the fecal contamination that is found. The third presentation summarizes research indicating that urinary tract infections (UTIs) in women may be closely linked to eating contaminated chicken. Given the large numbers of UTIs in the population, the public health impact is substantial. The final talk expands outwards from understanding food safety hazards, to understanding how people think about them. This presentation describes the psychometric properties and soundness of a tool to measure perceptions of food both as a source of exposure to environmental health hazards, and as a strategy to reduce effects of environmental hazards on health.

Session Objectives: 1. Identify points in the chain of events during the agricultural production process where the prevalence of microbial contamination on produce increases. 2. Discuss the potential of microbial source tracking for understanding what sources may have originated fecal contamination of produce. 3. Discuss the evidence regarding how drug resistant UTIs are linked with consumption of contaminated chicken. 4. Discuss the potential utility of integrating food into an instrument to assess thoughts and actions about environment and health.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)