Determining the Food Irradiation Beliefs of Community Nutrition Educators: Do Beliefs Influence Educational Outreach?

The Effect of a Multicomponent Professional Development Training on the Beliefs and Behaviors of Community Health Educators Concerning Food Irradiation

“…Research with community health and nutrition educators suggests that they hold relatively neutral to negative beliefs about food irradiation (Johnson, 1990;Thompson & Knight, 2006;Thompson, Schielack, & Vestal, 2004) and provide little to no education about it (Thompson & Knight, 2006;Thompson et al, 2004). Recent research indicates that community health and nutrition educators'beliefs concerning the safety of irradiated food, as well as their perceived understanding about food irradiation, are significant predictors of whether they provide education about food irradiation to their clientele (Thompson & Knight, 2006), suggesting the potential positive effect of professional development opportunities focused on changing beliefs in order to ultimately increase the education they provide about it.…”

“…Recent research indicates that community health and nutrition educators'beliefs concerning the safety of irradiated food, as well as their perceived understanding about food irradiation, are significant predictors of whether they provide education about food irradiation to their clientele (Thompson & Knight, 2006), suggesting the potential positive effect of professional development opportunities focused on changing beliefs in order to ultimately increase the education they provide about it.…”

Consumer Awareness About Irradiated Food: A Systematic Review.

“…Cronbach's alpha test was run to examine reliability. Thompson & Knight (2006) developed an instrument, called the Food Irradiation Educator Survey (FIES), to determine food irradiation beliefs and educational outreach of family and consumer sciences county extension agents. To define the constructs to be measured, a research review was performed and the judgment of experts was required.…”

“…To determine validity and reliability of the instrument, exploratory factor analysis (construct validity) and the Cronbach's alpha (reliability) test were conducted. Thompson et al (2007) modified the instrument already validated by Thompson & Knight (2006), the FIES. The modified instrument was called the Food Irradiation Teacher Assessment (FITA).…”

“…Currently more information is still needed to prevent the negative effect of not providing enough information to consumers (Hashim et al, 2001). Thompson & Knight (2006) identified that most participants of their interview had not been frequently advised on the food irradiation process. According to Cardello et al (2007), Teisl et al (2009) and Mehmetoglu (2007), the majority of consumers naturally present negative attitudes towards irradiated food.…”