Food Science Education Publications and Websites (2007)

Bird This is our 7th column on food science education publications and websites. Since our inaugural column in July 2006 we have received very few submissions from readers. If you have a website or publication that you believe other readers would like to know about, please submit the full text of the article or the URL for the website and an annotation of not more than 100 words. We welcome your comments and resources. Material should be submitted to: Jim Bird, Science & Engineering Center, Fogler Library, Univ. of Maine, Orono, ME 04469 or e-mail to Jim.Bird@umit.maine.edu. If e-mailing, please put “JFSE submission” in the subject line. The authors briefly describe an educational program on functional foods developed for educators by Purdue Univ. Extension. The objectives of the program were: Identify a healthful diet; Define “functional food”; Identify Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized health claims; Demonstrate knowledge of the FDA and Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) regulatory capacity involving functional foods; and Identify specific functional foods and their possible health benefits The above objectives are quoted from “The functional foods educational intervention” section of the paper. The results of a pretest and 2 posttests given 6 weeks apart showed an increase in functional foods knowledge. Positive attitudes towards functional foods were high on all assessments. The authors present their findings from a service-learning project done by university food and nutrition majors. Using a test school, service-learning students “…developed and pre- sented nutrition lessons to first through third grade students….” (p. 54) Plate waste data was collected at both the test and control schools to determine if the lessons presented had an affect on fruit and vegetable plate waste. No significant differences were found. This paper describes in detail the service learning component and its benefits. The project was favorably received by the university service-learning students. The authors describe brewing science experiments used in a course for non-science majors. The hands-on nature of the experiments was positively received by the students. Note that supplementary information including equipment and reagents required and a student handout are available in the online issue of this journal, a journal that is available by subscription. The authors used a new training program that addresses workplace safety and health focusing on the outcomes of safety knowledge and injury claims. Testing employees at 3 food service companies the authors present the following hypotheses: “Hypothesis 1 (H1): Training-specific safety knowledge will be higher among new curriculum-trained employees than among traditionally-trained employees within each company. Hypothesis 2 (H2): There will be fewer occupational injury claims in the new curriculum training group than in the traditional training group within each company. Hypothesis 3 (H3): When safety knowledge is higher, there will be fewer occupational injuries than when safety knowledge is lower, no matter the type of training or the company.” (p. 548–9). Briefly, the authors found among trainees: “…correlation between training and higher training-related knowledge.” (p. 555); “modest support” for hypothesis 2; and no association between safety knowledge and injuries. Please note that the authors have presented the results of a very detailed study in this paper. The paper should be read and studied in its entirety for a full discussion of the findings. In this paper, the authors describe an active learning technique to engage high school students in foods and nutrition classes. Using 8 salads as a teaching tool, students were asked to fill in a chart to detail salad attributes such as texture, appearance, color, and taste. After completion of the chart, the students and their teacher discussed and critiqued the student findings on identification “…and distinguish[ing] qualities of different types of salad greens.” (p. 36) Using this problem-based learning approach, the authors briefly discuss student learning. Using the terms +nutrition +diet searched across 3 Internet search engines, the authors identified almost 500 sites for evaluation looking at 27 criteria based on quality, usability, and readability. Of these 500 sites, 150 were selected for closer examination. The authors then “…used the US Dept. of Health and Human Services Web portal to consumer health information.” (p. 301) Criteria for content quality included accuracy and currency. Criteria for usability included navigation, link quality, and aesthetics. Readability was measured by the Flesch Reading Ease Score and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. The authors concluded: “…results demonstrated that using a credible gateway such as Healthfinder.gov or Nutrition Navigator may result in the retrieval of higher-quality nutrition information than generic Web searching, but sites are less usable and readable, which are also functions of domain type.” (p. 304)