Designing effective food safety messages

1. Designing effective food safety messages Dr. Ben Chapman Food safety extension specialist Dept of 4-H Youth Dev and FCS North Carolina State University benjamin_chapman@ncsu.edu

3. Food-as-foe (stats don’t do this justice) 22 year-old Stephanie Smith “I ask myself every day, ‘Why me?’ and ‘Why from a hamburger? Mason Jones Dec. 24, 1999 - Oct. 6, 2005

4. Retail and food service Transport In-the-home Processors Farmers

5. WHO factors contributing to foodborne illness • Improper cooking procedures • Temperature abuse during storage • Lack of hygiene and sanitation by food handlers • Cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat foods • Foods from unsafe sources • All human factors, behaviour based • WHO, 2002

6. Foodnet 2008 • U.S. CDC: New methods in communication and education needed to address foodborne illnesses.

7. Food safety communication philosophy • Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn`t know the first thing about either • Marshall McLuhan, 1967 • Disconnect between knowledge and food handler practices • Green et al., 2006; Green and Selman, 2005; Pragle et al., 2007; Redmond et al., 2004

8. It tells a story….

9. From the literature • Using stories and narratives better than statistics alone • Cole, 1998; Cole, 1997; Howard, 1991; Leventhal, 1970; Morgan et al., 2002; Slater and Rouner, 1996 • Put food safety into context • Leventhal et al., 1965; Lordly, 2007 • Surprising messages • Shannon, 1948 • Generate dialogue • Ajzen, 1991; Bohm et al., 1993; Dignum et al., 2001; Schein, 1993

10. Why did my grandmother overcook pork?

11. Risk communication Scientific Assessment of Risk Public Perception of Risk Information Vacuum • Need to be able to address • What you are doing • Why you have risk reduction practices • Update often • In absence, it gets filled by… whomever Powell, 1997

12. Need to be fast • Rapid • Reliable • Relevant • Repeated

13. Why look at social networking services and blogging? An estimated 60% of adults on the Internet use SNS Twitter and Facebook are increasingly popular among 25-40 year olds Blogs are growing as source of information 39% of Internet users admit to reading blogs Farrell, Henry; Daniel W. Drezner. “The Power and Politics of blogs.” Reach a younger generation Two thirds of people under 30 use online networking sites Stelter, Brian. “Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On” Allows for online discussions, engagement and instant feedback

15. This isn’t about being hip Compelling people from farm-to-fork to do what they can for public health Generating dialogue and engaging Being entertaining and getting into their heads Being creative with messages and methods The traditional, sanitized, generic messages aren’t doing the job

16. www.foodsafetyinfosheets.com

19. Results: Mean events per food handler *Significance level (p <.05, 95% CI)

21. Cause for consumer confusion? Product packaging of fully cooked vs. uncooked products Similar appearance of fully cooked and uncooked breaded products

22. Read/apply label instructions • Reading: Little time spent reading • Applying: Only 7% of all participants followed directions precisely

23. Food safety communication Audiences are all different, subgroups within audiences Message/medium need to compel It’s not as much education as it is communication Evaluation of efforts is important

24. Effective messages Are part of a story Are not unidirectional Are compelling Provide context, why and consequences Are based on evidence Are evaluated

25. Dr. Ben Chapman benjamin_chapman@ncsu.edu Follow me on twitter @benjaminchapman 919 809 3205 www.foodsafetyinfosheets.com www.bites.ksu.edu www.barfblog.com