A Systematic Literature Review of Produce Safety Training Research: Do We Know What Works?

Summary: Did you know that almost half of all food poisoning outbreaks come from eating contaminated fruits and vegetables? To help stop this, farmers and farmworkers are given "produce safety training" to teach them how to handle food safely. But does this training actually work?

Researchers looked through five different databases to find out, gathering 21 studies on the topic. They discovered that while most studies check if workers learned new facts or changed their attitudes, almost none check if the training actually changes how they work on the farm! In fact, only one single study proved that the training directly caused better safety habits. The researchers concluded that we need much better ways to test if food safety training is truly working to keep our food safe.