Exploring Novel Technologies to Enhance Food Safety Training and Research Opportunities

Abstract

In food safety research, be it focused on consumers in the domestic setting, or food handlers in the industry; technology capabilities have enhanced in recent years that have improved the rigour of research findings, reduce research biases, simplified data collection methods or enhanced the delivery of food safety education and training. For example, utilisation of online surveys can save time compared to paper-based surveys where the task of data entry is eliminated and approach to data analysis is simplified(43).The cost, availability and portability of surveillance equipment has enabled an increase in covert observational research of consumer food safety practices in domestic environments (33, 34, 81) or of food handlers in industry based settings (19, 35, 36).The 21st century has become the era of new technologies which afford many new opportunities to interact with target audiences. These evolving technologies are changing the way in which screens are used and could be the next big thing that the food industry and researchers can take advantage of; creating new and stimulating experiences that benefit areas such as food safety behaviour, cognition and training. Given advancements in technology, a food safety researcher and a user centred design researcher, have joined forces to explore novel technologies that can be utilised to enhance food safety training and research opportunities. The aim of this general interest article is to explore alternative technologies such as biometric and realities technologies that can be utilised by food safety researchers to enhance understanding of food safety practices, increase industry insight on food safety behaviours and present opportunities to optimise food safety education prospects.Additionally, this article gives an overview of several physiological and psychological technologies which are utilized alongside simulated environments, within applied user testing, product development and behavioural analysis research.