Purpose: The overall goal of this project is to develop best food safety practices educational material for small farmers’ and market vendors. Animated educational videos were designed to stimulate the learning capacities of both auditory and visual learners. Based on the videos, info-sheets were designed for posting at crucial locations within farmers markets.
Methods: A survey was designed to identify good and high-risk consumer and vendor practices at farmers markets. This survey was carried out in a passive manner by 4 different investigators at 7 farmers markets in Texas. Based on these results, 20 food safety scripts were composed for the educational videos and info-sheets. The videos were designed using animation software to actively engage and educate the audience simultaneously. The info-sheets were designed based on the animations.
Results: The results demonstrated high-risk practices such as poor personal hygiene and animal exposure to produce. Positive initiatives such as presence of hand washing stations, hand sanitizers, and gloves available for the consumers and vendors were also observed. The videos and info-sheets highlighted “good ideas” or positive behaviors and “bad ideas” or high-risk consumer and farmer behaviors.
Significance: By following positive food safety practices outlined in the videos and info-sheets, small farmers’ can reduce the risk of consumers contracting foodborne illness. Small farmers can generate a strong and loyal customer base by providing local, healthy, and safe food.