Purpose: Although many agencies, organizations, and educational outlets provide the public with food safety messages, there has not to date been a systematic collection of a landscape of whom is providing what information to what audiences.
Methods: An online survey was developed with questions. The survey was distributed to the Partnership for Food Safety Education’s BAC Fighter (self-subscribed health and food safety educators) and food safety educators through Internet searches expanded through a snowball participant selection process. Food safety educators from different sectors such as academia, federal government, food retail, non-profits, public health agencies, and schools (K-12) were targeted.
Results: Ninety percent (n = 469) of educational programs were delivered in-person, while 36% were delivered through online sources. Almost half of food safety educators (48%, n = 397) did not measure or were unaware if others measured impacts of their food safety outreach programs. When survey participants were asked whom their programming/outreach programs (n = 469) were designed to reach, children, parents of children and the elderly were ranked highest, while less than 15% of these programs targeted ethnicity based populations and farmers’ market vendors.
Significance: Improvements can be made for educating consumers about food safety by addressing the gaps identified within the data gathered. These improvements may include greater usage of program evaluation and additional educational materials for underserved populations.