The effect of online versus offline interventions on food safety and handling knowledge of household food handlers: A continuous experimental design

Abstract

In China, 30–40% of foodborne diseases occur in households. Furthermore, compared with those in urban households, foodborne diseases are more prevalent in rural Chinese households, as evidenced by epidemiological data. The mastery of food safety and handling knowledge is considered crucial to ensure food safety, and this study represents the first exploration of food safety educational interventions for food handlers in the Chinese context. Knowledge-based interventions on food safety and handling were conducted among food handlers from 139 rural households. Over a two-month period, each participant received ten consecutive knowledge-based interventions, resulting in a total of 1390 interventions. Among them, 74 participants underwent online interventions, while 65 participants received offline interventions. Throughout the two-month intervention period, a questionnaire was administered to assess participants' food safety and handling knowledge four times: before the intervention, after the fourth intervention, after the eighth intervention, and after the tenth intervention. A total of 556 valid questionnaires were collected. The results indicated that both the online and offline interventions significantly improved participants’ knowledge levels. Knowledge scores increased from 13.54 to 20.93 points (out of 36 points) after 10 consecutive online interventions and from 13.89 to 22.00 points after 10 consecutive offline interventions. Furthermore, no significant difference in knowledge growth was observed between the online and offline intervention groups, although the growth rate decreased with increasing intervention time. These findings suggest that in the Chinese context, stakeholders can use the WeChat platform to design high-efficiency and comprehensive food safety knowledge-based interventions. Additionally, optimal intervention frequency and intensity can be determined through small-scale field experiments before launching large-scale campaigns.