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As a result of inadequate safe food handling and food safety procedures, school catering organisations take tremendous risks with people who are arguably more vulnerable to food poisoning than adults. Food poisoning can be a serious affliction, the symptoms of which usually start between one and 36 hours after ingestion of food and can last for days. As noted, some segments of the population face a greater risk and have a higher incidence of food‐borne illness. These are identified as the “vulnerable groups”, and include: children and infants; senior citizens; pregnant women; and people with diabetes, AIDS sufferers, and chemotherapy patients. This study was undertaken in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and it examined the extent of food safety gaps in the provision of school meals. Findings of the study suggest that considerable food safety gaps exist, and specific managerial recommendations about how to narrow some of these gaps is given.

The purpose of this study is to examine household food gap and food insecurity in Eastern Ethiopia. Differences in food gap and food insecurity were also examined in terms of gender of the household head and location.

A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods such as household survey, key informant interview and focused group discussion were utilized for this study. Households were drawn randomly from the study area.

In terms of food availability, more than half of the households experienced a food gap during the year, especially during the months of July and August. In terms of gender, female-headed households had more months of food shortage compared to their male counterparts. This disparity was also reflected in poorer food access among female-headed households as shown by the higher HFIAS. Differences in food insecurity were obtained in terms of gender of the household head and location. Livestock ownership, cereal crop production, extension contact and household size significantly influenced household food access.

Findings are valid only for low-land agroecologies

This study contributes to the existing literature by examining household food gap and food insecurity using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. It adds value in examining disparities between male-headed and female-headed households. Literature related to seasonal household food insecurity is limited in Ethiopia. This study contributes in this regard by examining seasonal food insecurity between post-harvest and pre-harvest seasons.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the level of food self‐sufficiency, un‐accessed portions of food, and food gap between the national food security line of the country and consumption by its people. It also aims to scrutinize the major physical and economic factors inducing food insecurity in the country.

The paper applies descriptive statistics using mainly secondary data with the support of some primary information.

Pakistan is almost self‐sufficient in food production even if only 30 percent of its production potential has been achieved. In spite of such a situation, the average food consumption of its people is still significantly below the standards set up for the national food security line. The study also established that the food gap in the country is 30 percent, while a 35 percent portion of available food is un‐accessed due to various constraints spawned by physical, economic and sometimes natural factors. Out of the seven administrative units of Pakistan, Punjab and Sindh are the main food producing units while the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are the most highly food deficit unit. Irrespective of the level of local food production, food gap still exists in all administrative units due to inefficient food procurement and distribution system, illegal movement of food commodities, poor monitoring of marketing systems, lower purchasing power and natural disasters.

The paper elaborates on the average situation of the country, and establishes the baseline for future research to investigate the issues of food security deeply, providing some key recommendations.

The paper investigates the concept of food security through the important indicators, i.e. food gap and un‐accessed portion of food, and tries to sort out the factors inducing such gaps.

High school students are at an age where food handling may occur for themselves and as entry level workers in food service. An estimated 21 percent of food and beverage service workers are aged 16-19 years. The purpose of this paper is to determine baseline food safety knowledge and associated factors among high school students.

A convenience sample of 231 Chicago high school students was approached to participate in a 34-question survey to obtain information about their food safety knowledge, behaviors, and personal hygiene. Frequencies of correct answers to each knowledge question were examined to determine knowledge gaps. Bivariate analyses were performed to identify student variables associated with knowledge score and regression models were used to examine the associations between eligible factors and knowledge score.

Among the 195 participating students, 70 percent described themselves as Hispanic/Latino and 15 percent as non-Hispanic Black. In all, 12 percent of the students had restaurant employment experience. The overall student mean knowledge score was 37 percent. Students demonstrated substantial knowledge gaps regarding the temperatures for cooking, mechanisms for thawing food, cross-contamination, and vulnerable populations for foodborne disease. In the final linear regression model, Hispanic ethnicity and experience cooking seafood were significantly associated with lower knowledge score and experience cooking meat and cooking alone were significantly associated with higher knowledge score (p < 0.05).

Students demonstrated substantial knowledge gaps regarding the temperatures for cooking, mechanisms for thawing food, cross-contamination, and vulnerable populations for foodborne disease. In the final linear regression model, Hispanic ethnicity and experience cooking seafood were significantly associated with lower knowledge score and experience cooking meat and cooking alone were significantly associated with higher knowledge score (p < 0.05).

These data demonstrate substantial knowledge gaps in a predominantly minority high school student population. Given that high school students are a substantial proportion of the food service workforce, they are especially important to target for food safety education.

The first of a series of articles explaining the objectives, methods and progress of the Strathclyde University Food Project – a British food industry initiative which has as its objective the reduction of the British food trade gap through programmes of action research. Explains the background to the Project, its structure and the way in which it is managed. Discusses general issues of British food industry competitiveness which have been brought into focus through the activities of the Project in different sectors.

While the European organic regulation exists since more than 20 years consumers still do not seem to know what to expect from European Union (EU) labelled organic food. The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer expectations towards organic food in mature and emerging EU organic food markets.

Online consumer survey data (n=1,180; 2011) from Germany, the UK, Spain, and the Czech Republic are used to analyse the question: “Which criteria would you expect of an organic food product labelled with the EU-organic label?”. In total, 23 items including organic production criteria according to EC 834/07 and unregulated food quality criteria are tested. Mean value analysis and exploratory factor analysis are performed.

Consumers expect organic food to be free from chemical pesticides and mineral fertilisers. In total, two factors affect consumers’ expectations: naturalness of organic food products; additional sustainability aspects like, e.g. resource saving. However, several differences between the analysed countries exist. Although there does not seem to be a big gap between what consumers expect from organic food and what EU organic labelled products fulfil, some attributes might not mean the same to each consumer which could be a source of consumer disappointment.

Consequently policy makers as well as market actors should take this risk seriously and use terms like “naturalness” only with great caution when promoting organic food.

Further cross-country studies focusing on consumer expectations towards organic food are still needed, because until today only few studies deal with consumer and marketing issues in EU countries with different organic market development.

We analyze several dimensions of food security in Ethiopia, taking into account projected population growth, economic growth, and price information to estimate future food consumption by income decile. The analysis looks at the potential impact of large consumer price increases on food security metrics. We use the new USDA/ERS demand-based modeling framework in order to carry out this study. The modeling approach captures economic behavior by making food demand systematically responsive to income and price changes based on a demand specification well-grounded in microeconomic foundations. The projected change in food consumption can be apportioned to population growth, income growth, and changes in food prices and real exchange rates. We found that Ethiopia is highly food insecure, with 54% of the population consuming less than 2,100 calories a day at calibration levels. Income growth under unchanged prices mitigates food insecurity with the number of food-insecure people falling to 42.5 million in 2016. If domestic prices were free to fall with world market prices, the food-insecure population would decrease farther to 36.1 million. If domestic prices increased because of domestic supply shocks and constrained imports, the food-insecure population could rise to 64.7 million. The food gap (i.e., the amount of food necessary to eliminate Ethiopia’s food insecurity) would reach 3.6 million tons. The practical implications of this are that measures of food security are sensitive to changes in prices. Maintaining higher prices when global prices are low maintains higher levels of food insecurity than would otherwise prevail. Expanded access to lower cost imports could significantly improve food security in Ethiopia.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate food handling practices and food safety knowledge among undergraduate students in the Republic of Serbia. It was also to determine whether the university curriculum influences the food safety outcome among participating students.

A structured, self-administrative questionnaire was designed and used to assess the level of food handling practices and food safety knowledge among undergraduate students in the Republic of Serbia. In total, 240 students were involved in this study. For each participating student, the food handling practice score (FHPS) and food safety knowledge score (FSKS) was calculated by dividing the sum of correct answers by the total number of correct responses. Additionally, knowledge gaps among students of food/health related and non-food/health related faculties were identified.

The average FHPS for all students was 46%, while the average FSKS was 56%. Both FHPS and FSKS scores were significantly associated with the education, and students of food/health related faculties (Food Technology, Veterinary Medicine and Medicine) obtained better scores compared to students of non-food/health related faculties (Faculty of Agriculture, Economics and Faculty of Philology). Only 12.5% of all students and only 3.3% of non-food/health related students knew that food contaminated with food poisoning bacteria cannot be recognized by visual, olfactory or taste checks. The results indicated that 95% of students apply good practice of hand hygiene before preparing food, while only 52.5% of all students declared that they wash their hands for at least 20 s.

This is the first research aimed to investigate the food handling practices and food safety knowledge among undergraduate students in this part of Europe. Identifying knowledge gaps can help identifying at-risk populations and knowledge-based interventions. Also, novelty of this research was the connection between students' knowledge and curriculum of different food/health related faculties.

Although global food production has consistently kept pace with population growth, the gap between food production and demand in certain parts of the world is likely to remain. More than 800 million people in developing countries lack access to a minimally adequate diet. Continued productivity gains are essential on the supply side, because global population will increase by 73 million people a year over the next two decades. In this article we assess the current global food situation, look at the prospects through to the year 2020, and outline the policies needed to achieve food security for all. Emphasis is on the role that agricultural biotechnology might play in reaching this goal.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of off-farm income on food expenditure, using survey data of 493 rural households from Gansu, Henan and Shandong provinces in China.

A two-stage least squares estimator is used to jointly estimate the determinants of off-farm income and the direct impact of off-farm income on food expenditure while controlling for the endogeneity issue associated with off-farm income variable.

The empirical results show that gender, education of household head, household size, farm size, the presence of children, smartphone use and asset ownership mainly determine off-farm income, and the off-farm income affects food expenditure of rural households significantly. In particular, the results show that a 1,000 yuan increase in per capita off-farm income increases per capita food expenditure by 61 yuan. Further estimations reveal that off-farm income has a larger effect on food expenditure of high-income rural households relative to their low-income counterparts.

Although poverty implications of off-farm income have been well documented, few studies have analysed the effects of off-farm income on food expenditure of rural households. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no studies on this issue that focus on rural China. Therefore, the present study attempts to provide a first insight into the association between off-farm income and food expenditure of rural households in China, with the aim of providing useful evidence for policymakers in their efforts to reduce rural and urban food consumption gap and further increase social welfare.