Use of a self-assessment questionnaire for food safety education in the home kitchen --- Los Angeles County, California, 2006-2008.

Foodborne diseases remain an important cause of morbidity in the United States among all age groups. A potentially important contributor to this morbidity is improper food handling and preparation practices in kitchens at restaurants and in private homes. In 1998, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) established numeric scores for restaurant inspections and posted grades for these inspections publicly; by the end of 1998 this initiative was credited with helping to reduce by 13.1% (compared with 1997) the number of hospitalizations for foodborne infections from nontyphoidal Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Escherichia coli in the region. In the spring of 2006, the LACDPH Environmental Health Program launched the Home Kitchen Self-Inspection Program, a voluntary self-inspection and education program, to promote safer food hygiene practices at home. This report describes the implementation of this program and the results from its web-based self-assessment questionnaire, the Food Safety Quiz, for the initial program period of 2006--2008. Overall, approximately 13,000 adults completed the quiz; 34% received an A rating, 27% a B, 25% a C, and 14% received a numeric score because they scored lower than 70% on the self-assessment. Use of interactive, online learning tools such as the Food Safety Quiz can be used to promote home food safety in the community. Further research is needed to evaluate and improve the program content and to assess its effect on changing food handling and preparation practices in the home kitchen.