sumers, “Safe Food All Year Round” (
Seguros Alimentos Todo El Año), was designed around the fiesta theme.
8
Mexicans enjoy celebrating fiestas (lively
festivities in honor of various patron
saints) involving food gatherings. Festive, bright and bold colors characteristic
of the Mexican culture were reflected in
the choice of photos utilized. We also
featured details intended to make the resources culturally sensitive, including
ris-tra (bundle of dried red peppers
commonly hanging in Mexican kitchens)
and a crucifix (display of religious icons
is usual in Mexican homes).
Educational toolkits we designed for
ethnic food handlers in Mexican and
Asian restaurants included food safety
topics applicable to a restaurant setting
(Table 2). The first food safety topic covered was on personal employee hygiene,
to purposely link to recommended consumer food safety and hygiene practices
at home. Many food safety problems introduced or transmitted are linked to
poor hygiene practices by food handlers.
15-18 The need for a Consumer Advisory when serving raw food like ceviche
(Mexican) and sashimi (Japanese/Korean)
was included as a topic as were food allergens, considering that many ethnic
dishes contain food allergens,
19 and most
are not aware of them (e.g., Mexican mole
and Thai pad thai and satay dishes contain peanuts).
prototype (Level 3). An example of a
suggestion considered was the changing
of the cartoon mascot from a male character wearing a huge sombrero to a female
mascot with braided hair typical of
young Mexican girls. Apparently, depicting Mexicans with a sombrero is considered by Mexican-Americans as a form of
stereotyping them as lazy.
Effectiveness of Strategies
The effectiveness of the recommended strategies was evaluated through
pre- and post-testing and review of the
prototype Mexican food safety toolkit.
Strategy 7: Use a Need-directed,
Participatory and Process-oriented Approach
An even more ideal type of approach
would be what we refer to as Level 3,
that is, developing culturally appropriate
and customized ethnic food safety resources (Level 2) using a need-directed,
process-oriented and participatory approach. The recommended Level 3
process includes the following steps: a)
conduct a baseline/needs assessment survey on food safety; b) design the prototype food safety educational resource; c)
convene a focus group to evaluate the
draft; d) modify the draft based on feedback of the focus group; e) pilot test the
prototype toolkit with the target audience and have it reviewed by
educators/food safety communicators; f)
further modify the prototype if needed,
based on the evaluation and review; and
g) reproduce for mass distribution.
While this process may be expected for
any educational program, it is not usually implemented as such.
The inclusion of promotional educational resources was specified in a needs
assessment survey we conducted among
extension educators. The development
of educational resources focusing on
Asian and Mexican food handlers was in
response to food safety issues identified
by food inspectors/regulators with these
ethnic restaurants (State of Michigan
food regulators and local food inspectors, personal communication).
6, 20
When working with ethnic populations, a process-oriented approach is imperative because it encourages the
participation of the educators/food
safety communicators and the target audience, making the resources culturally
appropriate while addressing expressed
needs. For example, a program associate
requested “portable” promotional resources for transient and mobile migrant
Mexican clients; hence, we designed
functional resources (e.g., calendar, shopping notepad) to contain food safety
messages they could take with them
on-the-go.
Focus group findings are valuable to
researchers in early stage product devel-
opment and useful for identifying the
most practical outcomes.
21 The initial
draft of our Mexican prototype toolkit
was reviewed by a focus group consisting
of extension educators/program associ-
ates (n = 7) who were either bilingual or
working with Hispanic families. Their
feedback helped further improve the
Pre-Post Evaluation
Figure 2: Results of a pre-post test (n = 52), demonstrating food safety knowledge gained during the pilot testing of a prototype Mexican/Mexican-American food safety toolkit, “Seguros
Alimentos Todo El Año.”
