Featured Alumni

Alumni Usha Kalro says, “Food Safety and Nutrition are natural partners, and food cannot be nutritious if it is not safe.” She made a positive impact in both arenas with her applied project by developing a course for Nutrition and Dietetics students, Introduction to Food Safety and Security.

 

After working in the different areas of the nutrition field for several years, Usha said, “I started to see a pattern of how the two subject areas could complement each other.”  Assessing the course with the use of a survey for feedback, “It was an overwhelmingly positive response by the participating students and staff.” The tools proved only a need for more training and suggestion of courses for credit. She said the suggestions are under review.

 

Since graduating from the Program in the Summer of 2008 Usha is now employed as a Program Analyst in the Office of Strategic Initiatives, Partnership and Outreach, for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Nutrition Services.

 

She said, “yes, absolutely” when asked if her MS degree helps her is this position. “This was my first experience with on-line learning, and I developed skills in using technology. The course content was valuable and I use the information on a regular basis.”

 

As for what her future in food safety looks like? Usha says, “I am excited about the new possibilities that our President is developing for the food safety industry, and am looking forward to the changes and the expansions that will create opportunities for food safety professionals.”

Title: Introduction to Food Safety and Security:

Course curriculum

 

Author: U Kalro

 

Abstract:

 

Introduction: Nutrition and Dietetic courses are offered by four schools in Maryland and the District of Columbia, in some disciplines, the students are exposed to the basic concepts of food nutrition but food safety and food defense are not covered. In the post 9/11 world it is critical that all students especially students studying nutrition are introduced to food safety and food defense concepts. An informal phone survey of food safety education in the Washington DC Metropolitan area revealed that food safety information provided is minimal at best.

 

 

Purpose: Food safety education, though, an important part of the training provided to nutrition students, is minimal at this time. The objective of this program was to find a way to incorporate food safety educational material into the existing curricula for nutrition students.

 

Method: For this project, The University of the District of Columbia provided the opportunity to present the training materials to students registered in the Food Economics class, making the objective two-fold: first, to provide specific food safety material and second, to tie together the cost of food borne diseases with loss of food, productivity, income and health care expenses. A curriculum was developed to include power points presentations, hands-on activities, research opportunity and video presentations.

Pre and post tests were used to evaluate change in knowledge and an informal survey invited students’ comments anonymously.

 

 

Results: A pre and post test was conducted. There were a total of 6 students in the class. One student did not take the pre test and another one did not take the post test. The scores are provided in the table below. An analysis of the pre-test and post-test results showed that the average score improved from 4.4 to 6.2. For the four students, that took both the pre and post tests, their average score improved from four to six. In addition, there was improvement in every question. The above results indicate that the course successfully improved the students’ knowledge of food safety and security issues.

 

 

Significance: A simple three-question feedback questionnaire was provided to the students. Students have expressed an interest in seeing this information as a part of a complete 3-credit course as part of the nutrition program. This information has been presented to the department head and a possible food safety course is being considered.