Study: Food Pantries Have ‘Room for Improvement’ in Food Safety

The food safety of food pantries is a fairly new arena for researchers, but with 14 percent of American households insecure about food at some point during 2014, it’s drawing more attention.

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The latest bit of research on the subject finds that there is “much room for improvement,” particularly when it comes to recalls. The report was published online Sunday in the Journal of Food Protection.
“Populations of lower socioeconomic status are suspected to experience greater rates of foodborne illness, although this is difficult to demonstrate,” wrote study authors Ashley Chaifetz of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Ben Chapman of North Carolina State University. Also, those who rely on food pantries often have less access to healthcare in the event that they are infected with a foodborne pathogen.
They studied the standard operating procedures and interviewed managers at 105 food pantries from 12 North Carolina counties. The “snapshot” of the state’s food pantries compared differences between independent pantries and those partnered with a food bank, metropolitan versus rural, and pantries in which the managers did and did not receive any food safety training.
READ MORE:http://beforeitsnews.com/food-and-farming/2015/11/study-food-pantries-have-room-for-improvement-in-food-safety-2479834.html