Food availability is a serious problem for some low-income neighborhoods. This study examines food access in Eatonville, Florida, a small town in Orlando, Florida. Eatonville was one of the first African American towns incorporated into the United States after emancipation. It is a low-income community with 25% of the overall population and 30% of children living below the poverty line. This study will examine the state of food availability through food store and resident surveys in hopes of diagnosing need in order to alleviate it. There are serious implications for residents of cities with inadequate access to nutritious, affordable food. Children living with unequal access will face many future disadvantages in education, employment, and health. These compounding problems lead to a cycle of poverty that can be alleviated with appropriate public policy measures and other neighborhood changes that address food access in low-income neighborhoods.

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The study presented food security situation among farming male and female headed households in Eden District Municipality of the Western Cape, South Africa was conducted in 2010. The study was conducted among 31 male and 19 female headed farming household heads, selected proportionate to the size of each group. The household heads were selected via simple random sampling procedure. Data for the study were elicited from the respondents using structured questionnaire. The analytical tools used include the Mann-Whitney test to determine if a difference in food security exists among the two groups, a Wilcoxon test was used as an alternative for indicating the differences in food security. Frequency tables indicated the percentage distribution of respondents based on demographic characteristics. Out of the 12 food security constraints identified, both males and females viewed poor storage, poor market, and lack of credit and land tenure as the constraints that highly affect their household food security. The result showed that 58 percent of the females were between 41-50 years and 42 percent of the males were above fifty years of age. The percentage of male headed households that studied up to college level (16.1) was slightly higher than those of females (15.8). Most of the household heads had between 2 to four years farming experience (77.4 males and 64.4 females respectively). with 90.3 males farming on 3 to 4 hectors and females on 78.9 hector. Most of the farn1ers do not have any co-operative or farmer society. A significant difference existed in their food security status (Z =2.115, p 0.34), with higher mean rank for males (28.44) than for females (20.71). This confirms that food insecurity incidence was higher in female headed households than male headed households. / Thesis (M.Sc.(Agric Extension) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2011

published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

The objective of this project was to evaluate various culturing and isolation techniques of Campylobacter jejuni and to develop methods to detect the organism in foods. The morphological, cultural and biochemical characteristics of C. jejuni were studied using developed microbiological methods. A variety of media, broths, microaerophilic atmospheres and diluents, now available, were tested for their applicability to detect low numbers of the organism in food samples. Direct plating, filtration, double incubation enrichment, milk separation enrichment and swabbing methods were used to recover C. jejuni from seeded milk and fowl samples. As few as 16 organisms per ml of milk could be recovered using the double incubation enrichment. Raw milk samples from retail supermarkets and the Oregon State University Dairy Herd were tested for the presence of C. jejuni with the double incubation enrichment. No positive confirmation of the organism was made, although suspect microorganisms were observed microscopically. The survival of C. jejuni in foods and effect of sanitizers was studied. Raw and underprocessed foods pose the greatest risks as vehicles of Campylobacter infections. If contaminated foods are held at refrigeration temperatures C. jejuni could survive. Properly sanitized dairy equipment poses no apparent health problem and water should have a residual chlorine level of greater than 5 ppm to be safe. / Graduation date: 1982

Current retail food distribution practices, microbial quality of bakery products, and the potential for growth of food borne pathogens (Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhimurium, and Bacillus cereus) were examined using pumpkin pie as a model. The pumpkin pies, as obtained from the retail outlets, showed contamination with food pathogens. The aerobic plate counts reached high numbers (up to 10⁹/g) when stored at 25°C for the specified shelf life as indicated by pull dates. S. aureus was isolated from one sample and B. cereus from two samples of pumpkin pie. Baking conditions were sufficient to destroy IS. aureus and Salmonella typhimurium but not spores of B. cereus. The presence of S. aureus indicated post-processing contamination. When inoculated with S. aureus, Salmonella typhimurium and B. cereus, pumpkin pie supported the growth of all these organisms when stored at 25°C. When stored at severe abuse conditions (35°C), pumpkin pie supported the growth of S. aureus and Salmonella typhimurium but not B. cereus. Refrigeration at 4°C controlled the growth of the pathogens studied. The addition of 0.25% potassium sorbate to the pie filling inhibited the growth of Salmonella typhimurium and B. cereus but not S. aureus at 25°C. The findings of this study indicated a lack of knowledge regarding safe food handling practices among bakers. Current distribution practices indicated that pumpkin pies were often displayed at room temperature from two to five days. If contaminated, the product could become a public health hazard. / Graduation date: 1981

Sub-threshold effects were studied in binary and tertiary mixtures comprising a panel-recognition-concentration odorant and sub-threshold odorant(s). Sub-threshold condition was maintained by controlling the sub-threshold concentration as percentages of subjects' individual detection threshold. The perceived intensities (overall intensity and several descriptors) of recognizable odorants were rated using magnitude estimation. Sub-threshold suppression was common and concentration independent in mixtures comprising odorants with different functional groups. Suppression was observed at the lowest sub-threshold concentration tested (30% level). At sub-threshold concentrations, acetic acid suppressed the perceived intensity of acetaldehyde and ethanol but not vice versa. Acetaldehyde and ethanol, however, suppressed each other when one was at sub-threshold concentrations in binary mixtures. Enhancement was observed in tertiary mixtures containing acetaldehyde at panel recognition concentration and was dependent on sub-threshold concentrations of acetic acid and ethanol. In mixtures that contained aliphatic acids with different carbon chain lengths (acetic acid, propanoic acid and n-butanoic acid), sub-threshold enhancement and suppression depended on concentrations and molecular similarity of mixture components. Sub-threshold effects were not observed when the acids were two carbon-atoms different. 50% and 70% sub-threshold levels caused sub-threshold enhancement; however, higher concentrations caused decrease in intensity. Sub-threshold suppression was observed in mixtures containing n-butanoic acid as a recognizable odorants with propanoic acid at a 10% level in a binary mixture and acetic acid and propanoic acid in a 30%-30% combination in the tertiary mixture. / Graduation date: 2003

A sample of 243 Willamette Valley households participated in personal interviews and kept 7-day records of all foods brought into the household but not consumed by human household members. Their reason for discarding the foods, the amounts of discard, and their assessment of the safety of the foods were compared to household characteristics. Age of the major food preparer and the presence of children had a marked effect upon the discard patterns of the household. Households with children younger than 10 years discarded an average of $3.60 (1185 g) in a 7 consecutive day period, households with children 10-18 years of age discarded an average of $4.36 (2743 g), and childless households discarded an average of $2.11 (1195 g). In a sample of 50 households, as the household refrigerator temperature (as determined during the personal interview) increased from 35°F (2°C) to 68°F (20°C), the amount of discards also increased (r [subscript cost] = .82, r [subscript g] = .80). Food which was being discarded due to poor quality or because it was judged unsafe to eat by the householder was collected daily over a 3-day period for a subsample of 50 of the households. These collected discards were evaluated by a trained panel for degree of off-color, off-odor, and off-texture compared to the normal product standards, and also were microbiologically analyzed. When the householder's estimate of amount of food discarded was converted from their household measures to grams using food composition tables, the householder's estimate was 97% of the actual grams of food as weighed in the laboratory. Both studies found consumer confusion between solely quality changes in a food and environmental conditions that allow the possibility of pathogen growth in foods. In 62% of the microbiologically analyzed foods, the householder did not make correct safety assessments. In 9% of the microbiologically analyzed foods, an assessment of safe was made by the householder for foods which were determined to be at risk. Uncoded dates on packaged foods were the basis for the householder's discard decision for 17% of the total foods appearing on the 7-day records. Householders often stated they felt it would be unsafe to consume this food. Educational programs which give the householder criteria for the evaluation of food safety are recommended. / Graduation date: 1985

The rationale for this study lies in the upsurge of home food preservation which has occurred as a result of the unprecedented rise in food prices and, concommitantly, the danger and economic loss entailed in the use of faulty methods. A sample of 200 non-urban homemakers in the province of Alberta who do food preservation were examined on their practices and knowledge with regard to canning, drying, making sauerkraut, pickling, smoking and root cellar storage. The demographic characteristics of the sample population were delineated as to age, education, income, and size of family still living at home. These general demographic differences were not reflected in the food preservation methods used, in general. Cookbooks, some of which may have been government bulletins, were the most important source of information followed by family and district home economists. Unsafe practices followed by these homemakers were the use by 12% of the open kettle method for processing foods other than jams and jellies and the use by 76% of the boiling water bath rather than pressure processing for the low acid foods. These unsafe practices were made more serious by incorrectly evaluating the safety of food and the inability of the respondents to relate acidity classification of the food with its safety. The recommendation is made that canning publications provide the rationale for approved methods. More effective communication methods to reach homemakers are needed. / Graduation date: 1980