Abstract

The main aim of this workshop was to raise awareness and provide practical guidance for the use and assessment of food literacy by practitioners, policy makers and researchers.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) identified consumer behaviours as a driver of the food system; however, there have been no measures reported for assessing food acquisition, preparation, meal practices and storage: all key components of food literacy. Food literacy is defined as the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to plan, manage, select, prepare and eat food to meet needs and determine intake. However, questionnaires developed to measure this construct fail to comprehensively capture all aspects of food literacy. Thus, a four-part content validity study, a face validity study using cognitive interviews, and the assessment of targeting, responsiveness, reliability and validity using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Item Response Theory (IRT) was conducted.  The resulting measure was the International Food Literacy Questionnaire (IFLQ-19), a valid, reliable food literacy questionnaire that comprehensively measures the construct. This workshop will highlight/brainstorm areas where practitioners, policymakers and researchers may want to assess food literacy, how to distribute and score the questionnaire.

Thompson, C., & Vidgen, H.A. (2022, October 18-22). Measuring food literacy using the IFLQ-19. In International Congress on Obesity.