Safe eats

Abstract

Many undergraduate students are cooking for the first time, and they need to learn safe food practices to reduce their risk of foodborne illness. Social media tools are being utilized to teach, but limited research has examined their effectiveness for food safety education. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a social media-based intervention to improve young adults’ food safety attitudes, practices and knowledge. Preliminary surveys and online focus groups were conducted to guide intervention design. College students (710) were included in treatment and control groups. Results from pre-tests and post-tests indicate participation in the “Safe Eats” Facebook intervention leads to improvements in food safety attitudes, practices and knowledge. Although students perceived learning more from the intervention, traditional lecture improved knowledge scores more than the intervention alone. However, participants who spent more time on the Facebook page showed greater improvements in food safety attitudes and practices.