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HRM Receives USDA Grant

Posted: July 16, 2007
Story source: Seonghee Cho, 573-882-0563

Seonghee Cho, assistant professor in the Hotel and Restaurant Management program at MU's College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, and Mehmet Erdem, assistant professor in the College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, have received a $598,914 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to improve food safety through systematic need-based training for Hispanic workforce in restaurants.

The U.S. restaurant industry employs over 12.8 million persons, about 22 percent of whom are Hispanics. Despite the significant presence of Hispanics as food service employees, how they perceive and implement food safety practices have not been studied.

Furthermore, while Spanish language food safety training programs are available in the marketplace, a training process incorporating culturally sensitive procedures and tools which reflect Hispanic employees' learning styles has not been developed.

This project's goal is to develop a training mechanism which will enhance both Hispanic food service employees' attitudes toward the importance of food safety and their knowledge of food safety practices. Application of this mechanism should result in improvements in Hispanic employees' on-the-job incorporation of food safety practices.

During the three-year period beginning Sept. 2007, Cho and Erdem will develop a computer-based training tool that will enhance Hispanic food service employees' awareness and knowledge in food safety. Consequently, the training tool will reinforce the restaurant employees' behavior in carrying out proper food safety practices.

They proposed five sub-objectives as steps for achieving this project's goal:

  1. Determine needs areas for Hispanic employees' food safety training.
  2. Develop a culturally sensitive training process which facilitates Hispanic employees' attitude change.
  3. Develop and incorporate a training tool appropriate for Hispanic employees' learning style into the training process.
  4. Measure Hispanic employees' attitude and knowledge change toward food safety and changes in their on-the-job food safety behavior.
  5. Develop communication strategies promoting the developed training mechanism among restaurateurs.

They will use the findings on Hispanic employees' training needs and learning styles obtained from employee focus groups, restaurant site observations and a survey to design and develop the training mechanism and incorporated training tools.

They will use an experimental design and a survey with supervisors and co-workers to measure changes in Hispanic employees' knowledge, attitudes, efficacy expectations and food safety behavior.

Investigators: Seonghee Cho, Mehmet Erdem, Lisa Flores, Audrey McCool, James Groves

For more information, please contact Seonghee Cho, Ph.D., 573-882-0563.

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