Food Safety during Pregnancy (Nov '04)
Ordering information
A review of this curriculum is included in the November/December 2002 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. Vol. 34, Number 6, page 347-348.
Issue
There is an increased risk of foodborne illness during pregnancy.
Approximately 2500 cases of listeriosis are diagnosed annually in persons throughout the life span, 20% of these cases are fatal. However, 30% of listeriosis occurs during pregnancy and can lead to miscarriage and preterm labor.
What was done
- A curriculum was developed with funding provided by a USDA Food Safety and Quality Initiative competitive grant. The needs assessment indicated that high-risk, hard to reach audiences, in particular, during pregnancy, and for parents of small children have a need for food safety education. Purdue collaborated with Iowa State University to develop this curriculum.
- The curriculum is based on the Fight Back concepts of Clean, Separate, Cook and Chill. The mothers-to-be portion utilized a video along with a lesson plan. This lesson can be adapted to any nutrition program for pregnancy throughout the country. Participants in the initial portion of the program were given instant-read or refrigerator thermometers to reinforce the concepts taught. The parents and preschoolers portion utilized a CD of handwashing songs along with activities for parent and child to do together. Each lesson contains an evaluation component.
- Groups were conducted in both Indiana and Iowa during the Summer and Fall 2000 with pregnant women in rural and urban settings. The pilot program training was held in November 2000, followed by teaching of the program and evaluation. Based on this pilot, certain parts of the program were changed. The curriculum was distributed through training in Indiana and Iowa in March 2001 (Indiana EFNEP), April 2001 (Indiana FNP), May 2001 (Iowa EFNEP and FSNEP) and September 2001 (Indiana Extension Educators).
Pilot Results
- 16 Mothers to be and 42 Parents/Preschoolers provided matched pre-post evaluations from the pilot portion of the program.
- Goals achieved as reported by these participants: 19% improved practices related to prevention of Listeria, such as reheating lunch meats until steaming hot, avoiding soft cheeses, etc; 48% improved their hand washing; 31% improved practices related to cross-contamination; 31% improved cooking practices; and 69% improved practices relating to chilling food properly.
- Goals in progress as reported: 19% working on Listeria prevention; 17% working on improving cleaning practices; 50% working on practices related to proper cooking; and 56% working on improving practices related to chilling of food.
2003 Results:
Have a Healthy Baby/Safe Food and You participants who were also EFNEP participants showed behavior change in four major areas:
- improved practices leading to decreased chance of contracting Listeria monocytogenes such as heating luncheon meats until steaming hot
- improved food safety practices such as use of meat thermometer
- increased avoidance of second-hand smoke
- increased physical activity
Participant comments:
What I learned or plan to do differently.
"Cook lunchmeat until steaming"
"Use meat thermometer"
"Keep refrigerator at 40 or below"
"Wash hands for 20 seconds"
Participants were surprised by the information about Listeria monocytogenes. The risk of contracting it during pregnancy had not been discussed with them prior to our instruction.
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