Private and Public Value of Extension Food Safety Education: Perspectives from Minnesota

Abstract

Educational programs offered by University of Minnesota Extension play an important role in helping learners understand and implement regulatory guidelines regarding food safety. The goal of the present study is to evaluate three such education endeavors (Cottage Food Producer training, Serve It Up Safely for food managers and the Food Safety Modernization Act - Produce Safety Rule), as a foundation for future programming. I hypothesize that the continued success of these programs in meeting private and public values is based on ongoing collaboration between Extension educators, learners and relevant regulatory agencies. The results of this study are based on post-training evaluation of learners. These studies highlight areas in the delivery of the programs and in the experiences of learners that can be the focus for further research and development. Discussion around the public value of the programs and future research considerations are also presented.