Summer 2009: The Evaluation of an On-line Certified Professional Food Manager Course to Reduce/Eliminate Food Born Illnesses in the Food Service Industry

By Wenhui Sun, Ellen Shanley M.B.A., R.D. and Colleen Thompson M.S., R.D., The University of Connecticut, Storrs, Conn.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 76 million people suffer from foodborne illnesses each year in the United States. Food service is the second largest employer in the United States with a large number of immigrants and individuals having limited skills. The food service industry has an extremely high turnover. Many people working in food service are not well educated and many speak Spanish as their primary language. Ms. Shanley and Ms. Thompson created an online tutorial site through HuskyCT that teaches the information tested in the national certificate examination. We have conducted trainings in Simsbury, Oakdale, Storrs, and Wallingford to recruit subjects and teach them how to use the online programs. After all data compilation, we will analyze it with SPSS and determine the validity of the online modules.

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