Parental Beliefs and Behaviors Related to Food Safety in Zambia: Educational Implications

Abstract

Food safety has rarely been discussed in the literature on food education. In this study, Zambian parents of children in kindergarten, primary, and secondary were asked about their beliefs and other factors that influence their food safety behaviors and how these behaviors in turn impact their children. Qualitative interviews with 20 participants were recorded and coded. The analysis showed that parents were well informed on basic food safety practices, but several forces impacted how food safety was practiced and learned by school children in their homes and in school settings. The Innocenti Framework by Raza et al. (2020) was used to highlight areas in which parental experiences attempt to influence food choice in children. These forces were food allergies, experience with foodborne illnesses, access to information, cholera and COVID-19, social infrastructures, and curriculum structure. These forces impacted the decisions parents made in both their external and personal food environments as parents made decisions that were appropriate for their homes and based on what they could afford. This study provides a brief of what food safety looks like in the homes of Zambian parents in Lusaka. In the future, it would be beneficial for researchers to develop food safety educational interventions that are reflexive and appropriate to the local contexts within which they are intended to be applied.