Domestic food preparation practices: a review of the reasons for poor home hygiene practices: Fig. 1:

Abstract

New Zealand has a much higher rate of reported campylobacteriosis cases than the rest of the developed world. It has been suggested that New Zealanders have worse home hygiene practices during food preparation than the citizens of other developed countries. Thus, it is necessary to recognize and understand the reasons for consumer's poor practices in order to help develop a more effective message to improve New Zealanders' practices in the domestic environment. This could in turn lead to a reduction in the number of campylobacteriosis cases. The objective is to review cited literature on consumer practices which is related to food poisoning and to attempt to list the factors related to poor consumer practice. There are many internationally identifiable reasons for the poor practices of consumers. These reasons include psychological, demographic and socioeconomic variables; personal interest in new information; prior knowledge; cultural influence; educational background; perception of risk, control and liability; and attitude towards the addressed practices or hazards. The results have indicated that 'optimistic bias', the 'illusion of control', habits and lack of knowledge concerning food safety during domestic food preparation are prevalent among consumers. The research indicated the influence of demographic factors (age, gender, level of education, income, work hours, race, location, culture), as they play a potential role in determining domestic food safety behaviour. It appears that all these factors are applicable for New Zealand consumers and should be addressed in any future education strategy aimed at improving New Zealanders' food handling practices.

Challenges and Opportunities towards the Development of Risk Assessment at the Consumer Phase in Developing Countries—The Case of Campylobacter Cross-Contamination during Handling of Raw Chicken in Two Middle Eastern Countries

“…Commonly quoted qualitative responses (open-ended questions) from the Egyptian survey regarding the washing of chicken before cooking included 'it is recommended by cookbooks or cooking shows', 'a practice taught from mother to daughter', 'to mask unwanted smell or sliminess from the source' or 'I have my routine'. The more often tasks such as washing chicken are repeated, the more automatic they become and the less cognitive effort is needed; therefore, it may be challenging to find interventions to break the habit [31]. Additionally, some household food preparers felt that the introduction of new behaviours such as not washing chicken before cooking may diminish the opinions of others about their cooking skills/abilities.…”

A Closer Look at Changes in High-Risk Food-Handling Behaviors and Perceptions of Primary Food Handlers at Home in South Korea across Time

“…Moreover, the information sources and/or channels have been reported as the significant determinant factors for the educational effects to consumers [ 38 , 76 , 77 ], highlighting various education tools which have been regarded as effective strategies for behavior intervention and/or information delivery should also be considered (e.g., the social media and web-based communication with consumers) [ 52 , 78 , 79 , 80 ]. To narrow a perception-behavior gap, education should focus on consumers who think of themselves as knowledgeable regarding food safety issues, and communication with those consumers to recognize the gap is expected to contribute to changes in their hygienic practices [ 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 ]. As a moderate response to the questions of risk perception-behaviors can also be regarded as the potential for behavior that deviates from the best practice guidelines, further study regarding the in-depth examination on the intention of consumers who responded with the “moderate responses” is expected to change moderate to proper responses [ 29 , 30 , 31 ].…”

Attitudes and opinions of the abattoir sector toward the control and prevention of microbiological foodborne pathogens

“…This is in line with a study of Sargeant et al (), where stakeholders of the industry from the United States and Canada stated that consumers are (too) distant from the farm to fork processes (Sargeant et al, ). Abattoirs in the Netherlands mentioned consumers more than Belgian abattoirs, which might be related to several factors such as demographics and culture, which have been indicated to influence consumer behavior (Al‐Sakkaf, ). Interestingly, when exposed to the question “Who do you think should be responsible for beef safety” in the study by van Wezemael et al (), consumers from four EU countries did not mention themselves.…”