Access to safe and nutritious food is fundamental to preserving life and wellbeing. Unsafe food can cause more than 200 diseases, and each year, an estimated 600 million people fall ill after consuming contaminated food worldwide, resulting in 420,000 deaths. Effective food safety training equips handlers with the necessary skills to prevent foodborne illnesses. Evaluating training effectiveness, examining handlers’ perspectives, and improving training approaches are key. Given the increasing impact and complexity of food safety systems, innovative strategies are needed to incorporate existing knowledge while swiftly integrating new scientific advancements. Novel sanitation technologies are becoming more available, and sophisticated. Their adoption relies in the perceived value potential buyers put on the offered attributes, and the ease of use perceived by operators. Once food has left the manufacturing premises, the consumer plays a role in safeguarding and using it as intended. This collection of works aims to address the importance of translating research into applied strategies to develop solutions for challenges that hinder the progress of food safety, technology adoption, and workers’ trainings. In Chapter 1, I share the outcomes of food safety trainings offered during the Covid-19 pandemic. I found that there is opportunity for virtual trainings to complement in-person trainings, and this modality is welcomed by processors. In Chapter 2, I developed and implemented a safety training, using a pilot superheated steam unit. I found that participants thought the weight and time needed for its use were the two main challenges; being able to handle the unit empowered their use. In Chapter 3, I conducted a willingness to pay study on food processors, using a discrete choice model. I found that microbial reduction based on tangible outcomes and maintenance costs are the main influencers. In Chapter 4, I evaluated hot water temperatures for infant formula reconstitution, and guidelines in formula cans towards thermal inactivation of Cronobacter spp. I found that the wait time proposed does not consider different heating vessels and the temperature drops when water is transferred to bottles, and when the powder is incorporated. U.S. available formula cans do not provide the necessary information to achieve bacterial safety.

El acceso a alimentos seguros y nutritivos es fundamental para preservar la vida y el bienestar. Los alimentos inseguros pueden causar más de 200 enfermedades, y cada año, se estima que 600 millones de personas se enferman tras consumir alimentos contaminados en todo el mundo, lo que resulta en 420.000 muertes. Una capacitación eficaz en inocuidad alimentaria proporciona a los manipuladores las habilidades necesarias para prevenir las enfermedades transmitidas por los alimentos. Evaluar la eficacia de la capacitación, examinar las perspectivas de los manipuladores y mejorar los enfoques de capacitación son clave. Dado el creciente impacto y la complejidad de los sistemas de seguridad alimentaria, se necesitan estrategias innovadoras para incorporar los conocimientos existentes y, al mismo tiempo, integrar rápidamente los nuevos avances científicos. Las nuevas tecnologías de limpieza y desinfección son cada vez más accesibles y sofisticadas. Su adopción depende del valor que los potenciales compradores otorgan a los atributos ofrecidos y de la facilidad de uso que perciben los operadores. Una vez que los alimentos salen de las instalaciones de fabricación, el consumidor desempeña un papel importante en su protección y uso previsto. Esta colección de trabajos busca abordar la importancia de traducir la investigación en estrategias aplicadas para desarrollar soluciones a los desafíos que obstaculizan el progreso de la inocuidad alimentaria, la adopción de tecnologías y la capacitación de los trabajadores.