Food Protection Trends - March/April 2021 - 230

be most effective because they provide food handlers direct
experience with how to properly handle foods and information about various food safety criteria.
CONCLUSION
The present study revealed a lack of food safety knowledge
among campers in the United States and that food handling
behaviors of these campers could be improved. The findings
also revealed specific areas in which campers' knowledge
should be augmented. Campers need instruction in safe food
handling practices for preparing and serving foods to people
that are at a higher risk of foodborne illness, in preventing
food poisoning, and in identifying food pathogens. The
level of food safety knowledge and use of correct food safety
practices differed among campers by gender, ethnicity, and
education level. Because of these differences, food safety
training should be more frequently provided to specific
demographic groups who are less knowledgeable about food
safety practices during camping. A positive relationship
was found between campers' food safety knowledge during
camping and their previous food safety training experience,
suggesting that if more training were provided to campers,
their food safety knowledge would probably improve.
Another important finding was the need for food safety
knowledge and training to be combined, ultimately leading

to adherence to food safety practices during camping. In the
United States, campers should be effectively educated about
safe food handling practices for preparing and handling foods
while camping, which would result in a reduced number of
foodborne outbreaks and illness cases at campsites.
FUTURE STUDIES
Limitations in the present study could be addressed in
future studies. First, the data were collected only in the
United States and may not represent the entire global
camping population. Future studies could include validation
of these results with campers in other countries. Second,
the sample size in each ethnic group was small. Future
research could focus on exploring the difference in food
safety practices among multicultural campers through
direct observation of safe food handling practices. Cultural
differences can be included in future studies to examine
perceptions and knowledge levels among campers from
different cultures. A hands-on teaching component that
helps campers reinforce safe food handling behaviors once
knowledge is gained could be evaluated through experiments.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This study was sponsored by the College of Applied and
Natural Sciences, Louisiana Tech University.

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