The Level of Knowledge of Food Borne Illness and Food Safety Practices mong EPA Employees - Essay Example

Two groups of participants were recruited, those with food safety education that occurred less than 10 years ago and those that had education longer than 10 years ago or no education at all. These participants were then administered a food safety test and test results were rated on a percentage basis. The means from the two groups were examined and a t-test was performed in order to determine if there was a statistically significant difference between their food safety knowledge. It was determined that there was a difference in food safety knowledge between the two groups and researchers recommended that a food safety educational program be administered to employees in order to reduce the incidence of food-borne illness. In addition, it was recommended that this group be tracked for further incidences of outbreaks in order to determine the efficacy of that food safety program.

100 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, contracted food-borne illnesses in 5 consecutive years. It was determined that an investigation into food safety handling knowledge of employees would be beneficial in determining whether or not an educational program needed to be administered. 2 Two groups of participants were recruited, those with food safety education that occurred less than 10 years ago and those that had education longer than 10 years ago or no education at all.

These participants were then administered a food safety test and test results were rated on a percentage basis. The means from the two groups were examined and a t-test was performed in order to determine if there was a statistically significant difference between their food safety knowledge. 2 In an examination of disease dissemination at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 4, it was discovered that 100 employees contracted foodborne illnesses in a period of 5 years. It was deemed by this investigator that this number of outbreaks was considered problematic and that inadequate food safety practices among employees were the likely culprit.