Patrice Sulik, RS, Food Safety, Town of Stratford Health Department, 468 Birdseye Street, Stratford, CT 06615, (203) 385-4090, stkybookwrm@yahoo.com

In a culturally diverse nation, it is essential that health agencies provide culturally appropriate services. Public health organizations need to offer information and educational materials that are compatible with peoples’ different cultural health beliefs and practices. When public health workers incorporate culturally competent strategies into health promotion programs the result of the services is improved. It is more likely that the health status of the target population will be improved. In order to reduce the incidence of food borne illness outbreaks in minority populations, local public health workers must incorporate educational campaigns, which address risk behaviors that are specific to those populations. Successful communication of safe food handling and cooking practices can be challenging because of language and other social barriers. NACCHO strives to increase awareness and knowledge of ongoing and emerging food safety activities in an effort to improve local environmental health effectiveness. A local health agency will present its’ efforts to provide culturally competent food safety education and training. The speaker will describe some culture-specific risk behaviors observed and explain why they could lead to the occurrence of food borne illness. Specific strategies used to reduce language barriers in non-English speaking retail food establishments will be discussed. For example, some agencies have employed consultants who speak the language and are familiar with the culture to train particular groups. Culture-specific materials and resources will be highlighted.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize culture-specific risk behaviors that lead to foodborne illness.
• Identify intervention strategies to address cultural practices which are associated with the occurenc of foodborne illness.
• Access and utilize culturally-appropriate food safety education materials.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: My agency has received a grant from NACCHO.