Assessment of Native Languages for Food Safety Training Programs for Meat Industry Employees

Abstract

Challenges arise when teaching food safety to culturally diverse employees working in meatpacking and food manufacturing industries. A food safety training program was developed in English, translated into Spanish, and administered to 1,265 adult learners. Assessments were conducted by comparing scores before and immediately following training. Scores concerning food safety knowledge and food handling behavior improved dramatically when training was conducted in the native language. Impressive gains were noted for Spanish-speaking participants who averaged 96.60% on post-training scores, demonstrating that identical food safety training programs are most successful with both English- and Spanish-speaking individuals when presented in their native languages.