Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1512845

The Evaluation of Food Allergy Knowledge and Attitude in Different Food Sectors and The Effectiveness of Video-Based Training

Provisionally accepted
Tugce Aytulu Tugce Aytulu 1Beliz Su Gundogdu Beliz Su Gundogdu 2Elif Yayci Elif Yayci 2Isil Ezelsoy Isil Ezelsoy 2Betul Buyuktiryaki Betul Buyuktiryaki 3Mert Veznikli Mert Veznikli 4Sacide Rana Isik Sacide Rana Isik 5Cansin Sackesen Cansin Sackesen 3,6*
  • 1 Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, American Hospital (Türkiye), Istanbul, Türkiye
  • 2 School of Medicine, Koç University, Sarıyer, Türkiye
  • 3 Division of Pediatric Allergy, School of Medicine, Koç University, Sarıyer, Türkiye
  • 4 Department of Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Koç University, Sarıyer, Türkiye
  • 5 Division of Adult Allergy, American Hospital (Türkiye), Istanbul, Türkiye
  • 6 Koç University, Istanbul, Istanbul, Türkiye

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: Food allergies are common in the food industry.The knowledge and attitude of catering staff are crucial in preventing food allergy (FA)-related reactions.The study aimed to determine the knowledge of FA and evaluate the effectiveness of video-based allergy training for catering personnel in three sectors: restaurants, schools, and hospitals. Methods: Research has been conducted on workers in three different catering industries: i) restaurant chains, ii)school kitchens, and iii)hospital kitchens. The study involved administering surveys to the staff to measure their demographic data (11 questions), attitude (12 questions), and knowledge level (24 questions) about FA. After taking the pre-test, the participants who watched a 32-minute video on FA were asked to fill out post-test questionnaires measuring their knowledge and attitudes.Results: At the beginning, 619 participants took the pre-test. 45.7% and 40.9% (n=253) had a previous food Safety Certificate and food allergy training, respectively. Sixty-four percent (n=397) received our video-based FA training. Among the participants who completed video-based training and the posttest, some knowledge and attitude items improved, but some did not, compared to the pre-test results.Knowledge levels were similar between the previously FA-trained and those untrained individuals.Our results show that the participants' baseline level of knowledge and attitude for FA needs improvement. After the video training, the level of improvement in some items of knowledge and attitude was significant, but it was lower than expected. It is essential for training to not only provide accurate information but also aim to correct any known misconceptions.

    Keywords: Attitude, effectiveness, food allergy, knowledge, nutrition, Video-based training

    Received: 17 Oct 2024; Accepted: 31 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Aytulu, Gundogdu, Yayci, Ezelsoy, Buyuktiryaki, Veznikli, Isik and Sackesen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Cansin Sackesen, Division of Pediatric Allergy, School of Medicine, Koç University, Sarıyer, Türkiye

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.