Certifying the certifiers: A descriptive analysis of the requisite competencies to certify food safety instructors

Foodborne illness affects an estimated 24 to 81 million people resulting in over 10,000 needless deaths and losses of up to ;The primary purposes for this study were as follows: (1) to identify the extent to which food safety certification programs exist in Canada and the United States and its territories and consenting affiliates; (2) to describe the attitudes of the senior individuals responsible for retail food safety at the state, territorial and consenting affiliate levels in the United States and at the provincial and federal level in Canada regarding the training competencies needed to effectively instruct in a food safety certification program; (3) to determine the perceived importance of the universal acceptance or reciprocity of food safety and food safety instructor certifications; and (4) as an exploratory study, to develop the foundation for additional hypothesis generation and further in-depth research in the area of trainer competencies and certification.;The target population of this study consisted of the senior individual responsible for the retail food safety program at the state, territorial and consenting affiliates level in the United States, and at the provincial level in Canada. The positions, titles and even the organizations in which these individuals work differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Generally, the senior individual responsible for retail food safety is a registered sanitarian or environmental health specialist hired as an employee of the jurisdiction.;The instrument used for the collection of data in this study was, for the most part, a survey taken verbatim from the instructing/facilitating competency category of the Training Competency Architecture. This instrument contained the 9 core and 23 contributing competencies, and the 166 key behaviors considered requisite to effective instructor/facilitator performance. These competencies and key behaviors were developed and validated by, and used with the permission of, The Ontario Society for Training and Development, a Canadian professional organization dedicated to furthering the training profession through education, research and certification.