Effect of a Nutrition Education Intervention on Food Safety Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Mothers of Children under 5 Years in the Peri-Urban Areas of Bobo-Dioulasso: Before and after Study

Background: This study assessed the effect of a nutrition education intervention. This intervention aimed to improve the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of mothers on food safety in the peri-urban areas of Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso. Methods: A total of 243 mothers of children under 5 years in the peri-urban of Bobo-Dioulasso were administered the FAO questionnaire for food safety knowledge, attitudes, and practices assessment during two cross-sectional surveys, before and after the intervention, in January and October 2017. The intervention included two components consisting of a theoretical phase (counselling and discussion) and cooking demonstrations implemented for ten months. To account for the before-and-after design of the study, the McNemar’s test was used to assess the effect of the intervention on food safety KAP of mothers of children under 5 years. Results: The mean age of mothers was 29 ± 6.2 years and 50.6% of them were between 20 and 29 years old. One for knowledge (cooking thoroughly with, p-value = 0.0001) and another for attitudes (perceived benefits of reheating leftovers before eating them, p-value = 0.0001), significantly increased after the intervention. In terms of food safety practices, all the indicators (cleaning of dirty surfaces, plates and utensils and storage of perishable foods) significantly increased (all p = 0.0001 Conclusion: This study provided some evidence of an effective nutrition education intervention for improving maternal KAP on food safety for their child’s feeding.

Effect of Food Safety Training on Achieving Good Hygiene Practices in Restaurants in the Emirates of Dubai

Food safety,specifically in restaurants,is becoming a key public health priority because of the increased number of meals eaten outside the home.Foodborne illness prevention thus is a significant concern and a public health priority in the United Arab Emirates,particularly Dubai,because of the extensive tourism industry.The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using demonstrations in training sessions to improve food safety knowledge and practices amongst food handlers.A descriptive and quantitative approach has been applied to collect the quantifiable information related to the research study.This has been further analyzed using the correlation tests to gather the required data.On comparison of the pre-test scores between the intervention and the control group,the t-test analysis showed significant difference in the level of food safety knowledge between the two groups.Pre-test score for the control group was 78.33 and post-test score was 104.66.In the case of the intervention group,pre-test score was 91.37 and post-test score was 130.75.The scores of food handlers’food safety practice for control group:pre-treatment score was 470 and post-treatment score was 646.For intervention group:pre-test score was 723 and post-test score was 1,056.The study concluded that training with demonstration techniques is an effective way of improving compliance with food safety guidelines.It has been understood that training helps in improving the performance of the employees while reducing the foodborne diseases and maintaining hygiene in the food.The study recommends every restaurant needs to provide regular trainings to the employees so that the restaurants can maintain hygiene and food safety practices.

Review of Food Safety Supervision for the Wholesale Market of Chinese Agricultural Products

With the continuous improvement of living standards, there is an increasingly concerned about food quality and safety issues. Especially in recent years,food safety incidents, breaking out frequently, have become the focus of people＇s attention, putting forward new demands on the regulation of food safety. This paper reviewed the Food Safety Supervision in China from food safety supervision mode,regulatory system defects and circulation supervision system, and also proposed the future research trends of food safety regulations for the wholesale market of Chinese agricultural products.

Food safety regulatory systems in Europe and China:A study of how co-regulation can improve regulatory effectiveness

Food safety has received a great deal of attention in both developed and developing countries in recent years. In China, the numerous food scandals and scares that have struck over the past decade have spurred significant food safety regulatory reform, which has been increasingly oriented towards the public-private partnership model adopted by the Europe Union＇s （EU） food safety regulatory system. This paper analyzes the development of both the EU＇s and China＇s food safety regu- latory systems, identifies the current challenges for China and additionally considers the role of public-private partnership. The success of co-regulation in the food regulatory system would bring significant benefits and opportunities for China. Finally, this paper recommends additional measures like training and grants to improve the private＇s sector effectiveness in co-regulating China＇s food safety issues.

No country is an island in regulating food safety:How the WTO monitors Chinese food safety laws through the Trade Policy Review Mechanism(TPRM)

Established within the framework of the World Trade Organization （WTO）, the Trade Policy Review Mechanism （TPRM） reviews periodically the trade policies of all WTO Members. The review includes many aspects of food safety regulation. China＇s trade policy is reviewed every two years. This paper analyses in detail the reviews of China＇s trade policy in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. It focuses in particular on food safety laws and types of standards, alignment of domestic standards with international standards, the role of different domestic institutions, transparency and notification of food safety measures under the WTO agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures （SPS） and on Technical Barriers to Trade （TBTAgreement）, import and export, and geographical indications （GIs）. It concludes that the WTO TPRM can contribute, within its mandate, to reform of Chinese food safety laws and improvement of food safety in China. it notes that China has already undertaken substantial reforms of its system for regulating food safety. It recommends that China should continue to participate actively in the TPRM, follow its own path with regard to alignment and learn selectively from other WTO Members.

Is the Potential Interconnection between Antibiotic Susceptibility and Disinfectant Resistance a Threat to Food Safety?

The prevalence of antibiotic susceptibility and disinfectant resistance in bacterial pathogens causes a serious problem not only to food safety but also to public health, which directly or indirectly leads to treatment and disinfection failures. In this review, multidrug resistance, the mechanism of disinfectant resistance, the methods for detecting disinfectant resistance and the cross-resistance between an- tibiotics and disinfectants are summarized. More efforts should be devoted to explor- ing the professional guidance of using antibiotics and disinfectants, and to develop- ing the comprehensive detection with genetic and molecular methods is highly ex- pected.

Water quality, agriculture and food safety in China:Current situation, trends, interdependencies, and management

Water quality in China is becoming a severe challenge for agriculture and food safety, and it might also impact health of population via agriculture and food. Thus, it is causing widespread concern. Based on extensive literatures review and data mining, current situation of water pollution in China and its effects on food safety were analyzed. The 2nd National Water Resource Survey in China show that the surface water all over the country was under slight pollution and about 60% of groundwater is polluted. Drinking water quality is basically guaranteed in urban area but it is worrisome in rural areas. In addition, China is the largest consumer of fertilizer and pesticide in the world and the amounts of application still show increasing trends. Fertilizers and pesticides are the most important sources of pollution, which affect human health as persistent organic pollutants and environmental endocrine disruptors. Eutrophication of surface water and nitrate pollution of groundwater are serious threats to drinking water safety. Sewage irrigation is becoming a pollution source to China＇s water and land because of lacking of effective regulations. Although, with the advance in technology and management level, control of nitrogen and phosphorus emissions and reducing water pollution is still a major challenge for China.

Food safety controls in different governance structures in China's vegetable and fruit industry

Food safety issues constitute an international topic discussed by many scholars. Although there is an extensive body of literature on comparisons of food safety control practices across different governance structures, these studies have been conducted mainly in terms of qualitative and descriptive analysis. In addition, little attention has been given to family farms. This study addresses the food safety control practices adopted by firms with different governance structures in China. Food safety control is expressed by the following aspects, i.e., pollution-free, green, organic, and/or geographical indication prod- ucts certification, establishment of production records, and pesticide residue testing. Three types of governance structures that engage in agricultural production are distinguished： farmer cooperatives, agricultural companies, and family farms. The food safety control practices of various governance structures are investigated based on a database that comprises 600 vegetable and fruit enterprises in Zhejiang, China. The results show that （1） pesticide residue testing is adopted by the most firms, followed by products certification, and production records are adopted by the fewest firms, and （2） agricul- tural companies adopt more food safety control practices than family farms, while farmer cooperatives adopt the fewest food safety control practices. Governance structure features of a cooperative in terms of ownership, decision-making, and income distribution are the main reasons for the low level of food safety control in the cooperative.

The third-party regulation on food safety in China:A review

Stakeholders in the field of food safety management in China can be classified into three categories, government, food producers （farmers and enterprises）, and the third-party regulatory bodies. The third-party regulation has experienced rapid development in past twenty years, and recently received considerable attention from consumers and the central government. This paper provides a review about the development, problems and future trend of the third-party regulation on food safety in China. To be specific, five forms of the third-party regulation are assessed, including media exposure, the third-party certification, regulation by consumer associations, social movements promoted by non-governmental organiza- tions （NGOs）, and regulation by industry associations. The study concludes that media and consumer associations are the major players in the third-party regulation and are highly repudiated among customers. The food certification industry has developed rapidly, but is now facing crises of confidence among consumers because of its lack of self-regulation. NGOs and industry associations still remain in the early development stages of food safety management, and therefore, are of little importance in current regulatory bodies.

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumers’ food safety knowledge and behavior in China

This study assesses the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Chinese residents’food safety knowledge and behavior,and explores the possible influence mechanism,namely,focus on media information.The study is based on internet survey data of 1373 residents in China.A series of econometric models are developed to estimate food safety knowledge and behavior of residents.Both the descriptive and econometric results indicate that the existence of COVID-19 cases in a community has a significantly positive effect on residents’food safety knowledge and behavior.Residents focusing on food safety-related information tend to have higher food safety knowledge and practice food safety behavior.When controlling the variable focused on food safety-related information,the marginal effects of the existence of COVID-19 cases in a community on residents’food safety knowledge and behavior significantly decrease.However,the decrease in consumers’food safety knowledge is quite minor.Hence,the COVID-19 pandemic indeed improves Chinese residents’food safety knowledge and behavior,while focus on food safety-related information is an important mechanism for improving food safety behavior.Moreover,the estimation results of the simultaneous equations model reveal that consumers’food safety knowledge has a significant and positive effect on their food safety behavior.Heterogeneous impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on residents’food safety knowledge and behavior among different regions and income groups are observed.The findings of this study provide evidence that public health events could enhance residents’safety awareness and behavior,while residents’focus on relevant information plays an important role in improving knowledge and impacting behavior.

Food safety management and regulation:International experiences and lessons for China

China is experiencing rapid urbanization, changes in diets, and modernization of food retailing and production. In this context, food safety can become a greater concern for a variety of reasons. The purpose of this article is to review the international experiences and lessons regarding food safety management, regulation, and consumer behavior, with the goal of identifying how to improve food safety in middle income countries such as China. International experience in addressing food safety provides two general kinds of lessons. First, a middle-income country such as China needs to develop the capacity to carry out risk analysis in order to better focus public resources on the most important risks. Second, it will be important to leverage market incentives so as to make the best use of limited public capacity to enforce standards. Inter- national experiences show that food safety management is feasible where market incentives exist, and that public-private partnerships can support the process of improving food safety management. Market incentives require effective consumer or buyer demand, mechanisms to identify and reward quality, and supply chain coordination. Public efforts can be targeted to supporting these market developments for the risks that are the greatest burden to public health.

Agricultural pesticide use and food safety:California's model

Pesticides have been an essential part of agriculture to protect crops and livestock from pest infestations and yield reduction for many decades. Despite their usefulness, pesticides could pose potential risks to food safety and the environment as well as human health. This paper reviews the positive benefits of agricultural pesticide use as well as some potential negative impacts on the environment and food safety. In addition, using the case of California, we discuss the need for both residue monitoring and effective pest management to promote food safety. Twenty years＇ pesticide residue data from California＇s pesticide residue monitoring program were analyzed. Results showed that more than 95% of food samples were in compliance with US pesticide residue standards （tolerances）. However, certain commodities from certain sources had high percentages of residues above tolerance levels. Even when residues above tolerance levels were detected, most were at levels well below 1 mg kg^-1, and most posed negligible acute health risk. However, a few detected residues had the potential to cause health effects. Therefore, establishing an effective food residue monitoring program is important to ensure food quality throughout the marketplace.

Consumers' perceptions on GM food safety in urban China

The debate about the safety of genetically modified （GM） food has attracted public attention in concurrence with the rapid development of agricultural biotechnology. This paper examines the consumers＇ perceptions on the safety of GM food in China. Based on a unique survey dataset, this study shows that consumers in urban China have significantly changed their perceptions on GM food safety. The percentage of consumers who perceived such food as unsafe for consumption increased by more than 30% in the 2002-2012 period. Approximately half of the consumers did not have an opinion on this issue. Major shifts have been occurred after 2010, likely because of the increasing influence of negative media reports on GM technology in recent years. Several individual and household＇s characteristics are shown to significantly affect consumers＇ perceptions on GM food safety, such as gender, education, food allergy experience and resident city size. The paper concludes with policy implications.

Direct farm, production base, traceability and food safety in China

With the rapid growth of China＇s economy, rising demand for safety food has been accompanied by frequent food safety scandals. Given that China＇s farming is dominated by millions of small-scale farms, ensuring food safety is a major challenge facing the public and private sectors. The direct farm （DF） program, initiated in 2008, represents one of the government＇s major initiatives to modernize the distribution of fresh fruit and vegetables （FFV） and improve food safety. Under the DF program, participating national and international retailers are expected to establish more direct procurement relationships with farm communities. While it is often claimed that greater participation by retailers in the production and post-harvest processing implied the DF program will lead to improved quality, safety and traceability, systematic evidence remains elu- sive as existing studies are largely narrative, based on case studies, or theoretical inference. Little empirical evidence is available for a broader evaluation of the DF program. This paper aims to fill this gap by assessing the overall performance of a single retailer＇s DF experience with respect to the procurement and food safety of FFV. We use data from a survey of production managers of 35 DF production bases （PBs） spread across 11 provinces, 3 cities and 1 autonomous region in China. The results show a mixture of opportunities and challenges. On one hand, the DF program improves production practices and distribution channels of FFV produced on its PBs, thus facilitating the move of China＇s food system towards improved food safety compliance. On the other hand, significant heterogeneity in the traceability of food and the ability of DF to meet higher safety standards is evident both across major product categories and across household-operated vs. firm-operated PBs. The paper concludes with policy implications.

Emerging frontier technologies for food safety analysis and risk assessment

Access to security and safe food is a basic human necessity and essential for a sustainable world. To perform hi-end rood safety analysis and risk assessment with state of the art technologies is of utmost importance thereof. With applications as exemplified by microfiuidic immunoassay, aptasensor, direct analysis in real time, high resolution mass spectrometry, benchmark dose and chemical specific adjustment factor, this review presents frontier food safety analysis and risk assessment technologies, from which both food quality and public health will benefit undoubtedly in a foreseeable future.

Pesticide food safety standards as companions to tolerances and maximum residue limits

Allowable levels for pesticide residues in foods, known as tolerances in the US and as maximum residue limits （MRLs） in much of the world, are widely yet inappropriately perceived as levels of safety concern. A novel approach to develop scientifically defensible levels of safety concern is presented and an example to determine acute and chronic pesticide food safety standard （PFSS） levels for the fungicide captan on strawberries is provided. Using this approach, the chronic PFSS level for captan on strawberries was determined to be 2 000 mg kg-1 and the acute PFSS level was determined to be 250 mg kg-1. Both levels are far above the existing tolerance and MRLs that commonly range from 3 to 20 mg kg-~, and provide evidence that captan residues detected at levels greater than the tolerance or MRLs are not of acute or chronic health concern even though they represent violative residues. The benefits of developing the PFSS approach to serve as a companion to existing tolerances/MRLs include a greater understanding concerning the health significance, if any, from exposure to violative pesticide residues. In addition, the PFSS approach can be universally applied to all potential pesticide residues on all food commodities, can be modified by specific jurisdictions to take into account differences in food consumption practices, and can help prioritize food residue monitoring by identifying the pesticide/commodity combinations of the greatest potential food safety concern and guiding development of field level analytical methods to detect pesticide residues on prioritized pesticide/commodity combinations.

Food safety inspection and the adoption of traceability in aquatic wholesale markets: A game-theoretic model and empirical evidence

Supply chain traceability is key to reduce food safety risks,since it allows problems to be traced to their sources. Moreover,it allows regulatory agencies to understand where risk is introduced into the supply chain,and offers a major disincentive for upstream agricultural businesses engaging in economically motivated adulteration. This paper focuses on the aquatic supply chain in China,and seeks to understand the adoption of traceability both through an analytical model,and empirical analysis based on data collected through an extensive (largest ever) field survey of Chinese aquatic wholesale markets. The field survey includes 76 managers and 753 vendors,covering all aquatic wholesale markets in Zhejiang and Hunan provinces. The analytical and empirical results suggest that the adoption of traceability among wholesale market vendors is significantly associated with inspection intensity,their individual history of food safety problems,and their risk awareness. The effect of inspection intensity on traceability adoption is stronger in markets which are privately owned than in markets with state/collective ownership. The analysis offers insights into the current state of traceability in China. More importantly,it suggests several hypothesized factors that might affect the adoption of traceability and could be leveraged by regulatory organizations to improve it.

Problems of Rural Food Safety and Strategies of Constructing Supervision System

This paper expounds the practical necessity of constructing diversified rural food safety supervision system as follows: it is the necessary requirements of guaranteeing people's health and life safety; it is an important component of governmental function of social management and the logical extension of administrative responsibilities; it is the basis of maintaining order of rural society and constructing harmonious society. The main problems existing in the supervision of rural food safety are analyzed as follows: first, the legislative work of rural food safety lags behind to some extent; second, the supervision of governmental departments on rural food safety is insufficient; third, the industrial supervision mechanism of rural food security is not perfect; fourth, the role of rural social organizations in supervising food safety is limited; fifth, the farmers' awareness of food safety supervision is not strong. Based on these problems, the targeted strategies of constructing diversified rural food safety supervision system are put forward as follows: accelerate the legislation of rural food safety, and ensure that there are laws to go by; give play to the dominant role of government, and strengthen administrative supervision on rural food safety; perfect industrial convention of rural food safety, and improve industrial supervision mechanism; actively support the fostering of social organizations, and give play to the role of supervision of organizations; cultivate correct concept of rights and obligations of farmers, and form awareness of food safety supervision.

Welfare and Market Impacts of Food Safety Measures in China: Results from Urban Consumers' Valuation of Product Attributes

This study provides an economics assessment of various food safety measures in China. A choice experiment approach is used to elicit Chinese consumer preferences for various food safety attributes using data from a 2008 urban consumer survey. An alternative welfare calculation is used to model aggregate market impacts of select food safety measures. Our results show that the largest welfare gains are found in the current government-run certiifcation program. The implementation of a third-party certiifcation system, a traceability network and a product label would generate signiifcant value and would help reduce current system inefifciencies in China. This study builds on previous research and provides an alternative approach for calculating consumer valuation of safety and quality attributes that can be used to estimate aggregate economic and welfare impacts.

Willingness of farmers to participate in food traceability systems:improving the level of food safety

In order to solve frequently emerging food safety problems and adapt to the developing trends in the international food safety field, the Chinese government is establishing and developing food traceability systems. Whether or not food traceability sys- tems can guarantee food safety is a problem well worth discussing. Hence, we constructed a theoretical model to explore the effect of incentives in a food traceability system in order to improve food safety levels. The following results were obtained： enhancing the ef- fectiveness of a food traceability system, increasing the payment to farmers who supply safe agricultural products and strengthening the penalty for unsafe food supply actions are necessary conditions to improve the level of food safety. How to encourage farmers to use food traceability systems is another problem explored in our investigation. Based on a field survey on the willingness of vegetable growers to participate using a vegetable traceability system in Beijing, the first city in China to develop such a system, we used a de- scriptive statistics and a binary logistic regression model to investigate the factors which dominate the decision on the part of farmers to participate in a food safety system. The results indicate that i： younger farmers are more likely to get involved in a food traceability system than older farmers, ii： income from non-agricultural activities decreases the willingness of farmers to participate, iii： the high- er the cost-benefit ratio of growing vegetables, the more likely for farmers to engage in a food traceability system, iv： farmers with a great concern for food safety information have a high propensity to participate and v： increased penalties against unsafe food supply actions and high-risk expectation are adverse incentives. In contrast, high-price expectation is a positive incentive for farmers to par- ticipate, while agricultural training, government subsidies and being part of an industrial organization will significantly strengthen the confidence of farmers to participate in a food safety system.