Increasing Knowledge with Food Safety Training at Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County

Sep 22, 2026

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Food safety training is presented as a key tool to prevent foodborne illness that harms millions of people annually in the United States and globally while driving substantial economic costs. The study evaluates knowledge changes among Public Health–Dayton & Montgomery County’s Level One Food Safety Certification participants using pre- and post-quiz data, identifies questions most frequently answered incorrectly, and examines links between quiz performance and primary job responsibility. Results show significant overall score gains and improvement across nine of ten items, with temperature-related questions yielding the largest incorrect-response impact.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Materials and Methods

PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE Food Protection Trends, Vol 35, No. 4, p.262–269 Copyright©2015, International Association for Food Protection 6200 Aurora Ave. , Suite 200W, Des Moines, IA 50322-2864 Matthew M. Tyler,¹,² * Naila Khalil² and Sara Paton¹,² ¹Public Health—Dayton & Montgomery County, 117 S. Main St. , Dayton, OH 45422, USA ²Wright State University, Center for Global Health, 3123 Research Blvd. , Kettering, OH 45420, USA Increasing Knowledge with Food Safety Training at Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County ABSTRACT Food safety training is an important tool in preventing foodborne illness (FI), which affects millions of people each year in the United States and around the world and costs billions of dollars. Training gives those working in the food service industry the knowledge and skills necessary to properly handle, cook and serve food. The objectives of this research was to assess changes in knowledge of Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County’s (PHDMC) Level One Food Safety Certification program participants, analyze which questions were most often answered incorrectly, and determine whether there was a relationship between quiz scores and primary job responsibility, using pre- and postquiz training data. The course teaches food safety topics, including handwashing, employee hygiene, correct cooking and holding temperatures, sanitization duties of the person in charge, and others. The participants are offered a quiz at the beginning of the course, and the same quiz is offered after completion of the two-hour training. Pre-training and post-training quiz score data were obtained from approximately 692 participants completing the PHDMC Level One Food Safety Certification program from 2011 to 2013. Paired t-tests were used to evaluate change in scores overall, on individual questions, and by job responsibility. Quiz scores significantly improved both aggregately (20.6%) and in nine out of the ten questions. The temperature-related questions had the most incorrect answers (score range: 38% – 71%) but also showed the most improvement (improvement range: 28% – 49%). This research shows that PHDMC’s Level One Food Safety Certification class was associated with a change in knowledge of participants from pre-to post-training. INTRODUCTION In the United States (U. S. ), an estimated 48 million people fall ill each year because of foodborne infections; of these, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die (2) . During 2012 in Ohio, 427 disease outbreaks occurred in 64 out of the 88 counties. Eighty-five of these outbreaks were foodborne, and 43 of the 85 were confirmed through laboratory testing (11). Food safety training for workers is one method to increase worker knowledge and improve *Author for correspondence: +1 937.296.3213; Fax: +1 937.496.3072; [Email: mtyler@phdmc.org](Email: mtyler@phdmc.org) 262 Food Protection Trends July/August food safety practices throughout the industry and thereby decrease illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths. A number of ways can be used to increase knowledge, ranging from reading literature to classroom training and interactive demonstrations. Studies have shown that all of these approaches can be useful in increasing knowledge, at least in the short term (3, 4, 8, 9) . Food safety certification is a standardized training program, and participants who complete these programs are documented as food safety certified (1). Beginning in 2011, local health departments in Ohio were allowed to teach a Level One Food Safety Course upon final approval by the Ohio Department of Health (ODH). ODH requires a certain curriculum to be taught in the training course, including topics such as handwashing, responsibilities of the person in charge, employee hygiene, correct cooking and holding temperatures and sanitization, among others. Sanitarians at Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County (PHDMC) in Dayton, Ohio, teach this food safety training course once a month and a

FAQs

What was the purpose of the Level One Food Safety Certification training study?

To assess changes in participants’ knowledge, determine which quiz questions were most often answered incorrectly, and test whether quiz scores relate to participants’ primary job responsibility using pre- and post-quiz data.

How were knowledge changes measured in the study?

Participants completed the same ten-question quiz at the beginning and after the two-hour training, and results were analyzed with paired t-tests overall, by individual question, and by job responsibility.

What topic area showed the most incorrect answers and also the greatest improvement?

Temperature-related questions had the most incorrect answers, with score values in the 38%–71% range, and they also showed the largest improvement, within 28%–49%.

Sep 22, 2026

Upload by Connor