THE SAFE FOOD HANDLING FOR OCCASIONAL QUANTITY COOKS CURRICULUM

The Safe Food Handling for Occasional Quantity Cooks curriculum was de veloped as an educational program for volunteer quantity cooks who lac k safe food-handling knowledge. The objectives of this study were to d etermine the knowledge gain of educators and volunteer quantity cooks and the behavior change of participants after program attendance. Know ledge was assessed both pre- and postprogram, and the differences in s cores of educators and volunteer quantity cooks were determined. A beh avior checklist was used to monitor self-declared food-handling behavi or at the time of attendance and 3 months after participation. Partici pants in the program improved their knowledge or behavior scores, alth ough statistical significance was not attained in all cases. Results f rom this pilot study indicate that the curriculum has the potential to help achieve the goal of preventing foodborne illness in volunteer, t emporary, or seasonal quantity food production situations. The long-te rm impact of the curriculum needs to be assessed.