| Food irradiation is an additional food safety intervention method for ensuring a safe food supply; however, individuals have limited knowledge and negative beliefs about it. The purpose of this study was to determine the food irradiation beliefs and knowledge of educators and investigate whether a multi-component professional development food irradiation training could change their beliefs and knowledge about it.; To assess the knowledge and beliefs of educators, two instruments were developed: Food Irradiation Educator Survey (FIES) and Food Irradiation Knowledge Assessment (FIKA). The FIES was administered to 134 family and consumer sciences extension educators in Texas. Of those, 24 self-selected to attend a food irradiation training (treatment group). Immediately before the training, the FIKA was administered to assess knowledge; immediately after, the FIES and FIKA were administered; four months later (posttest), the FIES was again conducted with the treatment group and 26 educators who participated in the pretest but not the training (comparison group).; Overall results from the pretest indicated family and consumer sciences extension educators held positive beliefs about the safety of food irradiation (safety beliefs) but felt they had a poor understanding of it (understanding beliefs). Results from the FIKA confirmed that they indeed possessed limited knowledge about food irradiation.; Immediately and 3½ months after the training, safety beliefs and understanding beliefs were significantly higher than pretest scores (p < .01). Additionally, knowledge was significantly higher post-training than on pretest. When these data were compared to the comparison group, results indicated the safety and understanding beliefs of the treatment group were significantly higher.; In-depth interviews were conducted with six participants from the treatment group regarding which educational strategies were most beneficial to their understanding. They indicated that touring a food irradiation facility and meat processing plant were very beneficial to their understanding of food irradiation, learning about the history of food irradiation, and identifying controversial issues surrounding food irradiation. While some participants felt that a computer modeling program was important to their understanding of food irradiation, others did not. Limitations of the study along with implications for practice and future research will be discussed. |
