Evaluating food safety education in hospitality management programs through the lenses of situated learning theory: Insights from industry leaders and educators

Abstract

Food safety is essential in hospitality management education, but there has been great concern about students' knowledge, attitude, and practices about food safety. Guided by the situated learning theory, this study evaluated contemporary food safety education in U.S. colleges and identified needs for future improvement. This paper reports the findings of two studies: the first interviewed 20 industry leaders in hospitality management, and the second interviewed 10 food safety educators. The results showed that, despite its importance, food safety education in colleges had heavily relied on commercialized programs such as ServSafe®, and taking these courses is unmotivating for students. Moreover, practitioners acknowledge the importance of food safety, but their implementation of food safety training can be limited by organizational size and staffing issues. Based on the theory and the findings, this study provided suggestions for improving food safety education in U.S. higher education institutions.