Food safety and sustainable nutrition workshops: educational experiences for primary school children in Turin, Italy

Abstract

European control and prevention policies are focused to guarantee a high level of protection of consumers’ health. Food-borne diseases as obesity, diabetes, food allergy, and food-borne outbreaks are increasing. To prevent food-borne diseases, it is fundamental to involve consumers, in particular children, in educational experiences aimed to learn the proper behaviours to be applied. In this context, we designed and performed 5 educational workshops about food safety, hidden allergens in food and nutrition aimed to involve children attending primary and summer school. These experiences let us collect observations about children knowledge and behaviours. From May to October 2015, a total of 1708 children aged 6 to 11 years joined our workshops. Children were involved in listening activities, laboratory experiments, handling games and sensory experiences. All participants were familiar with food allergy and were interested to know how to behave with allergic people. Children showed great curiosity in discovering that many foods normally contain live bacteria. Less than 25% of children reported to skip breakfast, to have it watching TV or to spend few minutes for it. Many of them (>75%) thought that fruits and vegetables are all year-round available and are not related to a specific period. Very few participants (<25%) knew that freezing is the treatment to be applied to make fresh fish safe from parasites. Children involved in food safety and nutrition educational experiences have the opportunity to increase their awareness about the correct behaviours to prevent food-borne diseases and to improve their own critical thinking about food consumption.

Challenges and strategies in the education of primary school children related to microbiological food safety – a review

“…All authors designed specifically tailored 40-90-minute workshops with the intention of promoting health and influencing the comprehension of preventive measures targeting food-related risks. The authors applied mostly cross-sectional pre-test/post-test surveys [10,32,33], with the exception of Traversa et al [34] who observed participants and their replies to the questions and practical activities proposed during the workshop. For evaluation purposes, only some of them applied control group and monitored short-term and long-term effects among the target population [10,33].…”

“…Ovca et al [10] addressed the impact of temperature on microorganisms, the cleaning of kitchen gear, the removal of bacteria with hand washing, and the prevention of cross-contamination. Traversa et al [34] focused on characteristics and differences among microorganisms in the context of cooking, storage, and cross-contamination. Cross-contamination was also addressed in the case of allergens.…”

“…The improvement after the intervention was much more significant if substantiated with an experiment or practical activity in comparison to the measures addressed only orally during the workshop. Furthermore, Traversa et al [34] reported that children enthusiastically engaged with the practical experiences during the workshops, while Kim and Lee [32], who did not apply practical activity in which children would be involved, reported minor although significant improvement of self-reported hand-washing.…”

Are Gender Perspectives Included in Education for Sustainable Consumption and Waste Education Programs? A Systematic Literature Review

“…These articles covered several ESC topics such as sustainable tourism, product lifecycle, energy conservation and efficiency, consumer education, packaging, carbon footprint and food (Chalfoun, 2014;Crawford, Luke, and Van Pelt, 2015;Danilane and Marzano, 2014;S. Gough and Scott, 1999;Hawas and Al-Habaibeh, 2017;Nowak et al, 2009;Oliver, 2016;Pankina et al, 2016;Traversa et al, 2017). Specifically in the waste education field, two articles addressed food waste, while the remaining articles addressed household waste, municipal solid waste, and solid waste in general (Çelikler and Harman, 2015;Davis, 2008;Finlayson, Gregory, Ludtke, Meoli, and Ryan, 2017;Maddox, Doran, Williams, and Kus, 2011;Painter et al, 2016;Redman, 2013;Zain et al, 2013).…”

Programas de salud y alimentación escolar, el papel de la participación de la comunidad

“…Los niños que participan en experiencias educativas sobre seguridad alimentaria y nutrición tienen la oportunidad de aumentar su conciencia acerca de los comportamientos correctos para prevenir enfermedades transmitidas por los alimentos y mejorar su propio pensamiento crítico sobre el consumo de alimentos. 16 La seguridad alimentaria determina no sólo el estado de nutrición y salud actual de la población infantil, sino que condiciona su calidad de vida en la edad adulta y la mala nutrición de las generaciones futuras.…”