Background Food choking injuries represent one of the leading cause of death, among unintentional injuries, in children. However, data from the Susy Safe registry have shown that adult supervisors are not aware of food choking hazard, highlighting the need to implement specific educational campaigns in the field.

Objective To try to respond to this need, an international MOOC (massive open online course) has been realized.

Methods The SafeFood4Children (https://www.safefood4children.org/) initiative consists of a series of videos freely available on a dedicated website (MOOC learning modality) that addresses specific topics (obstruction mechanism, hazardous food items and their preparation, pediatric unblocking maneuvers) closely related to the problem of food choking in children. Once the course has been completed, a certificate of participation is obtained. Dedicated sections have been implemented for each country collaborating to such initiative. Course contents are based on the country’s intrinsic characteristics (taking into account families’ eating habits, which are known to affect the type of food on which children choke).

Findings A positive cooperation with the National University of Malaysia has been undertaken, drawing the attention of local government authorities, instituting Malaysia as a role model. As results, the SafeFood4children initiative has been implemented in Malaysia (https://www.safefood4children.org/#may) and a dedicate section has been developed, in both English and Malay, involving Malaysian experts (https://vimeo.com/223429785/c9ad8a0c50 for a video clip).

Conclusion The SafeFood4Children initiative in Malaysia would be a working model to be implemented to other AESAN countries, to further reduce the burden of food choking injuries in children.

Policy implications This prevention initiative has been designed to be freely accessible to everyone. One of the goals of the project is to be adopted by a national prevention program that promotes participation in the online course among public school teachers and families.