This document discusses using social media for food safety education. It notes that unsafe food causes many diseases globally. Food safety is a growing public health issue. Social media can increase the reach of food safety messages and facilitate interactive education. Government agencies like the CDC use social media to target different groups with food safety information. The document recommends using social media to listen to audiences, make education more participatory, and energize communities around food safety issues.

1. Social media
&
Food Safety
Education
--------Ruby
For Social Media & Marketing Communication by
Professor Frechette

2. Background
• Unsafe food causes many acute and life-long diseases,
ranging from diarrheal diseases to various forms of
cancer.
• World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that
foodborne and waterborne diarrheal diseases taken
together kill about 2.2 million people annually, 1.9
million of them children.
•

3. Food-Chain

4. Food Safety is a
social issue
• Foodborne diseases and threats to food
safety constitute a growing public health
problem.
• Assist Member States to strengthen
their programs for improving the safety
of food all the way from production to
final consumption.

5. • USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) host a
food safety education conference on March 23-26,2010.
• Titiled “Advancements in Food Safety Education: Trends,
Tools and Technologies”

6. Importance of FSE
Food Safety Education is necessary:
Empowering consumers worldwide with
knowledge and better safe food handling
behaviors is the best line of defense against
pathogens causing foodborne illness.

7. Promising approaches:
Social media engagement

8. Through social media
• Increases the dissemination and potential impact
• Reaches diverse audiences
• Facilitates interactive communication and
community
• Empowers people to make healthier and safer
decisions

9. Food safety Education
Departments Resources
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC)
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Food
and Nutrition

10. CDC & social media

11. Tapping the groundswell
• POST(People , Objectives, strategy, technology)
• Targeting Scientists
• Targeting underserved audiences
• Targeting kids and families

12. Targeting scientists

13. Targeting underserved
audiences
• CVM (community voice mail)
• a national network which connects more than
40,000 phoneless people annually to the
resources they need to restore dignity and
stability to their lives.
• More than 14,900 total voice mail messages
1,000 email messages disseminated

14. Targeting kids and
families

15. Energizing the
groundswell
• Creating a community to energize customers.
• For example:

16. Participate in daily life to
energizing customers

17. Recommendations
• Doing market research to know what
consumers really concern about- Listening to
the groundswell
• Instead of lecturing food safety
knowledge, making the education process
more of participation-oriented
(games, ratings, reviews)- Embracing the
groundswell

18. References
• Lydia Medeiros, “Evaluation of Food Safety Education for
Consumers”, Sep.2001, Pages S27-S34.
• Donna Maurer, “Eating Agendas: Food and Nutrition As Social
Problems”,1995.
• Josh Bernoff, Groundswell, “winning in a world transformed by social
technologies, 2008.
• Ryan W. Newkirk, Jeff B. Bender, The Potential Capability of Social Media
as a Component of Food Safety and Food Terrorism Surveillance
Systems, Feb. 8, 2012.