Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
19 WOODWARD HALL 9 EAST ALUMNI AVENUE
KINGSTON,RI 02881
Performing Department
2012 - CELS Academic Unit 1
Non Technical Summary
This Community Outreach project will support the development of new or customized food safety education and outreach materials that are aligned with FSMA regulations. This project will focus on the local Rhode Island community to determine what educational supports are needed to help processors comply with FSMA, and specifically, with the PCHF rule. This will enhance the food safety programming in RI by providing appropriate content and preferred delivery formats (in-person, online synchronous or asynchronous), as indicated by the needs assessment. Additionally, this programming will complement regional efforts to consolidate food safety resources for the food manufacturing industry that are aligned with FSMA. Programming will be developed to address barriers to receiving training and to make education accessible to a broader network of food industry workers. The long-term goal of this project is to build the capacity of the Rhode Island food manufacturers network to comply with FSMA regulatory requirements for food safety training, implement best food safety practices and strengthen the food safety system. This will be accomplished by 1) conducting an assessment to understand the food safety education/outreach needs of RI food manufacturers regarding FSMA PCHF, 2) customizing, developing, and/or expanding upon food safety training materials and providing education and outreach opportunities in the delivery format preferred (informed by the needs assessment), and 3) evaluating the impact of the training program and implementing a sustainable education and outreach program that meets the target audiences needs for FSMA compliance.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
This Community Outreach project will support the development of new or customized food safety education and outreach materials that are aligned with FSMA regulations for food manufacturing. This project will focus on the local Rhode Island community to determine what educational supports are needed to help processors comply with FSMA, and specifically, with the PCHF rule. The long-term goal of this project is to build the capacity of the Rhode Island food manufacturers network to comply with FSMA regulatory requirements for food safety training, implement best food safety practices and strengthen the food safety system. This will be accomplished by the following objectives:Conduct an assessment to understand the food safety education and outreach needs of RI food manufacturers subject to the PCHF rule.Customize, develop, and/or expand upon food safety training materials and provide education and outreach opportunities for RI food manufacturers in the delivery format preferred (informed by the needs assessment).Evaluate the impact of the training program for continuity and implement a sustainable education and outreach program.
Project Methods
OBJECTIVE 1: Conduct an assessment to understand the food safety education and outreach needs of RI food manufacturers to comply with the FSMA PCHF rule.A multidisciplinary Advisor Board will be formed, as outlined above, at the start of the project and will be involved in all aspects of the project (e.g., survey development and implementation, data analysis, training and resource review, program implementation).A graduate student will be hired to lead the effort to develop a contact database of food manufacturing operations in Rhode Island, using the list of licensed food manufacturing businesses, which is public information that will be obtained from the RI Dept. of Health. Prior to launching the survey, the project team will personally reach out to each RI business to explain the project goal in hope that this will maximize industry participation, as past experience has shown this approach to be successful (Pivarnik et al., 2012).Survey development, review and administration will follow the successful protocol previously utilized (Richard et al., 2021; Pivarnik et al., 2012, 2016). The survey will be developed to assess the education and outreach needs of food manufacturers subject to PCHF in Rhode Island. Briefly, the survey will inquire about background information about the food business (e.g., the number of employees, type of food products manufactured) and the respondent (e.g., their job function, prior food safety experience), training topics/content needed (e.g., topics for instruction, such as food allergens, sanitation, and others), desired training format (e.g., factsheets, lectures and webinars, among others), training delivery (in-person, remote synchronous or asynchronous), length of training and opportunities for learning (e.g., during lunch breaks or dedicated company time) and barriers (e.g., for receiving training). This survey will target quality control personnel and production managers and it will collect information for both production managers, in-line workers, and other appropriate personnel. Prior to implementation, the survey will be sent to 10 content experts. Content experts will consist of the AB and other colleagues experienced with survey design and/or food safety.Survey implementation will consist of an online survey, which has been successfully used by the project team to implement data collection protocols. Briefly, we will personally reach out to the quality control or production manager at each business to notify them of the upcoming survey and it's launch date, with hopes of maximizing participation. This notification will be sent two weeks prior to the survey launch. The survey will remain open for 4 weeks. A survey reminder will be sent two weeks prior to the close of the survey. Potential survey respondents will be determined by using the contact database the project team develops from RI Dept. of Health license registration data of food manufacturing operations subject to PCHF rule. Polaris MEP will also assist with survey distribution. The URI Institutional Review for human subjects will be obtained prior to survey implementation.Quantitative and qualitative data will be compared for managers versus in-line workers. Descriptive statistics (e.g., frequency, percent, mean and standard deviation) will be used to analyze the data. Respondent preferences for training content and the desired format for delivery will be ranked and correlated to key demographic items. For example, the results will be stratified by the company size (as defined in the PCHF rule), job function and other variables.The food safety-related content desired by survey respondents will be rank ordered. The Project Team will reconcile the content needs of RI manufacturers with the content that has already been developed, using the NECAFS Food Safety Resource Clearinghouse (a recently developed, one stop shop for FSMA-related food safety resources that target food producers). The project team will first determine what has already been developed using this guide. Then the project team will determine and prioritize the resources that need to be developed and/or expanded upon.OBJECTIVE 2: Customize, develop, and/or expand upon food safety training materials and provide education and outreach opportunities for RI food manufacturers in the delivery format preferred (informed by the needs assessment).The educational materials developed under this objective will be directly informed by the results of objective 1. They will be created in alignment with the FSMA PCHF regulation and required subject matter. They will focus on areas where the companies are having the most problems. Materials will also be developed so that companies can easily customize the needed information for workers as related to their business operation.The format for expanded materials will be informed by objective 1. It is expected to create materials in various formats, that are easy to update, and that may be appealing to a broader audience. Options for format include factsheets, infographics, lectures, manuals, webinars, and many others. The delivery methods for receiving the training and outreach will be determined by the needs assessment. Options include in-person, online synchronous or asynchronous, and printed materials. Programming will be delivered by N. Richard and L. Pivarnik. Appropriate resources will be translated into Spanish or other desired languages, as determined by the needs assessment. Finally, the materials developed under this objective will be submitted to the AB for peer review. Additionally, program feedback obtained during the initial rollout of the educational programming will guide any minor modifications made prior to project completion.OBJECTIVE 3: Evaluate the impact of the training program for sustainable implementation.Program evaluation will assess intent to apply the new knowledge on the job and usefulness of the training. Pre- and post-tests will be administered for each training module.The customized program will be incorporated into food safety programming for sustainability beyond the grant. Project outputs will be shared with the Regional Food Safety Center, NECAFS, who maintain a "Road to Resources" interactive website that includes food safety focused information for the food manufacturing industry, that aligns with the PCHF regulation.