Validation of a Pre- and Post-Evaluation Process: A Tool for Adult Training in Food Handling
classroom techniques, food safety education, foodworkers, test item analysis
Education in food safety is a well-recognized health intervention, which allows the prevention of a wide range of diseases. Among the strategies of control and prevention of foodborne diseases, it is indicated that food safety education has the double advantage of having low costs and high potential effectiveness, as long as it is carried out with the active participation of food handling workers. In many countries, the Food Code has made compulsory the sanitary training of food workers. However, like in many other disciplines, food science educators receive minimal training on instructional techniques before becoming teachers. One of the important questions of the problem here presented is the issue related to the methodologies of pre-evaluation and final evaluation. We describe two indices to validate the training in food safety, which could be used for the quantification of educational intervention. The results show that a better learning process involves the active participation of both the students and the educators. We concluded that the evaluation process is more complex than the single instance of accreditation though a final evaluation.
Guido Mastrantonio, Mariana Dulout, María Lourdes González, Pedro Zeinsteger