Have you ever ever fallen sick from food you have eaten? It occurs 23 million instances yearly in Europe. Researchers have investigated what it takes to stop folks from getting sick from the food they put together and eat at house. An internet cooking game confirmed promising outcomes for each consciousness of food security and risk-reducing habits.
“The purpose of the EU venture SafeConsume is to cut back food poisoning in homes. We develop and check a number of methods to succeed. Considered one of these is to research the results of partaking on-line video games,” says Solveig Langsrud, senior researcher at Nofima and the coordinator of SafeConsume.
Habits in a digital world impacts the way you behave in the actual world
“Wash surfaces and fingers earlier than and whereas cooking. Totally clear utensils, reducing boards and kitchen surfaces after dealing with food gadgets, ideally utilizing separate reducing boards and utensils for uncooked meat. Guarantee that the hen is sufficiently cooked.”
That is among the recommendation given to make sure secure food. Of their research, the researchers present that offering info by means of a 2-minute video already helps to extend folks’s consciousness of what it takes to keep away from food poisoning. On the identical time, the researchers see that merely offering info is never sufficient to vary the habits in the kitchen. That is partly as a result of making ready food includes many repetitive duties which might be performed habitually with out a lot considered what one is doing. Right here, on-line video games can play an vital function, as a result of they have interaction folks to apply appropriate food dealing with in the digital surroundings and thereby might help break routines.
By asking individuals questions on their food security associated information and their food dealing with habits we might see that individuals turned extra conscious of how to make sure that food is secure and that they modified their cooking routines in line with the behaviors they’d been given factors for in the game in comparison with a management group who didn’t play the game.”
Alexander Ok. Koch, professor at Aarhus College and lead creator of the research
The Safeconsume game engages at any age
1,087 individuals from Norway and the UK, ranging in age vary from 20-50 years previous, participated in the research. As well as, an additional 886 folks participated in a second pattern outdoors the initially set age vary, with the oldest participant being 89 years previous.
“Previous to the research, we had anticipated that the dedication to take part and enjoying the net game was best amongst younger folks. Surprisingly, it turned out that the results that we discovered have been remarkably steady throughout the totally different age teams,” says Nina Veflen, senior researcher at Nofima and professor at BI Norwegian Enterprise Scholl. She is behind the essential thought of the research.
How the research labored
The individuals began by responding to a survey on, amongst different issues, cooking and food hygiene habits, and what they considered a wide range of myths linked to food security. Then they have been assigned to considered one of 4 situations. Besides in the management situation, individuals watched a two-minute video that addressed the 5 classes:
- private hygiene (hand washing),
- kitchen hygiene (cleansing utensils and surfaces),
- washing contemporary greens and fruits,
- not rinsing meat or poultry,
- heating meat totally.
These 5 classes replicate “The 5 keys to safer food” ready by the World Well being Group (WHO).
After the video, the precise cooking game began for individuals in the game situations. Right here the individuals would put together 4 totally different dishes by following a recipe. that concerned hen, some uncooked vegetable or fruit and bread. Instantly after every dish was ready, the individuals acquired suggestions on how effectively they carried out in phrases of food security.
The researchers adopted up seven days after with a brand new questionnaire about food security associated information and behaviors. It turned out that each those that had solely seen the video and those that had performed the net game had develop into extra conscious of food security dangers in the house in comparison with the management group, however solely those that performed the game had modified their food preparation habits.
The game is obtainable in a number of languages
The game is made as a part of the Horizon 2020 venture SafeConsume. Online video games have the large benefit that they’re instantly accessible to many customers. The SafeConsume game has been translated into 9 languages. Yow will discover it through AppStore and GooglePlay.
