North Carolina State University graduate student Allison Smathers writes,

I am a conversation enthusiast.  I often search for opportunities to meet new people and hear their stories.  The two people I sat next to on the plane home from the International Association of Food Protection annual meeting were no exception.  Dr. Bernadette Franco of University of Sao Paulo and Dr. Mario Killner of SFDK laboratory of product analysis S/c Limited were also leaving the conference with great fervor for progress in food safety.  We conversed on the sessions we attended as well as information we had learned and discussed during the conference.  Dr. Killner exclaimed, “if we could just get people to wash their hands, much of the foodborne illness burden would be lifted.”

Is it that simple and is that even a simple task?  Increasing compliance with handwashing guidelines is not a simple task.  After four days of meetings, symposia and technical sessions, I am more aware of the challenges confronted by food safety professionals.
During this short conversation on the plane, I reflected on the Food Safety Education Professional Development Group I had attended on my first-full day within the conference walls.  The discussion led by Dr. Ben Chapman and Dr. Renee Boyer was a great reminder that even though we all have the same goal in eliminating foodborne illness, we do not have the same objectives or ideas for the method to achieve this goal.  Topics of communication and science-based recommendations were some of the hot topics that got some members visibly agitated. 

Should we waste more time and resources deliberating over washing our hands for 15 seconds or 20 seconds?  Or should we encourage people to merely attempt handwashing, especially considering the low rate of compliance? 
Where to focus energy, time, and resources for best risk-reduction was one food safety objective I was burdened with during the conference.

Considering the focus of my MS research is to develop a food safety curriculum for farmers’ market vendors and managers,  education program development sessions were a priority for me to attend.  It is reassuring to know other people are passionately working in the same arena.  During one such session, Dr. Judy Harrison, Dr. Mimi Cooper, and Dr. Adrienne Shearer conveyed their role in educating our youth on food safety.  The curriculums they have developed are encouraging; especially considering our youth will soon be working in the food service arena and making my food.

The importance of knowing your audience and how to best communicate best risk-reduction behaviors was a common theme in each of the food safety for youth curriculums.  The methods for communicating the importance of handwashing were extremely different based on the age bracket each curriculum was aimed towards.  This session supported the fact that telling people to wash their hands and having them effectively change behavior is not a simple task.

What good is research and knowledge if it is not communicated in a manner that brings about better risk-reduction behavior?  Challenges in closing the gap between scientific assessment of risk and behavior is not new – it is a communication issue.  The disparities and issues associated with communicating food safety risks was also explored by people who do it all the time in a session called “How do I answer that?! How to respond to Questions from Media and Consumers.”  In this session, Frank Yiannas, Caroline Smith De Waal, and Dr. Pat Curtis further supported the notion that without proper communication of science, best risk-reduction practices will not become a part of the real world.

On Tuesday, the role of the government in bringing about food safety changes was communicated by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.  Vilsack confronted the difficulty of time, the economy, and budget cuts that will continue to impact the USDA’s role in food safety and protection of the “337 billion meals consumed every year by Americans.”  Vilsack communicated different actions the USDA has made alongside President Obama’s commitment to food safety because “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.”

The information, networking, and food safety camaraderie made the twelve hours of travel to get to the conference null and void.  The information that I learned during the conference will also become null and void if I do not communicate it effectively with those who can make changes toward better practices in risk-reduction such as handwashing.