title: Food safety knowledge, attitudes and self-reported practices among Ontario high school students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To measure the food safety knowledge, attitudes and self-reported practices of high school students in Ontario.
  
  
  METHODS
  We administered a school-wide paper survey to the student body (n = 2,860) of four Ontario high schools. We developed the survey by selecting questions from existing, validated questionnaires, prioritizing questions that aligned with the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education's educational messages and the food safety objectives from the 2013 Ontario High School Curriculum.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One in five students reported currently handling food in commercial or public-serving venues; of these, 45.1% had ever taken a course that taught them how to prepare food (e.g., food and nutrition classes, food handler certification). Food safety knowledge among respondents was low. For example, 17.3% knew that the best way to determine whether hamburgers were cooked enough to eat was to measure the temperature with a food thermometer. Despite low knowledge, most respondents (72.7%) reported being confident that they could cook safe, healthy meals for themselves and their families. Safe food handling practices were frequently self-reported. Most students (86.5%) agreed that being able to cook safe, healthy meals was an important life skill, although their interest in learning about safe food handling and concern about foodborne disease were less pronounced.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that food safety knowledge is low, yet confidence in preparing safe, healthy meals is high, among high school students. Because work and volunteer opportunities put students in contact with both the public and food, this group is important to target for increased education about safe food handling.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Health Systems University of Waterloo. smajowicz@uwaterloo.ca.
authors.forename: Shannon E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Majowicz
authors.forename: Kenneth J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Diplock
authors.forename: Scott T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Leatherdale
authors.forename: Chad T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Bredin
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rebellato
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hammond
authors.forename: Andria
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jones-Bitton
authors.forename: Joel A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Dubin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D059022:Food Safety; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009864:Ontario; D057566:Self Report; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires