High-Risk Food Consumption and Food Safety Practices in a Canadian Community

Abstract

Understanding consumers' high-risk food consumption patterns and food handling in the home is critical in reducing foodborne illness. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of unsafe food practices of individuals in a Canadian-based population, specifically, high-risk food consumption and home food safety practices. During November 2005 to March 2006, a sample of 2,332 randomly selected residents of the Waterloo Region (Ontario, Canada) participated in a telephone survey of food consumption and food safety. Questions covered consumption of high-risk foods, hand washing practices, safe food handling knowledge, source of food safety education, meat thawing and cooking practices, cross-contamination after raw food preparation, and refrigeration temperatures. Certain high-risk food behaviors were common among respondents and were associated with demographic characteristics. In general, unsafe practices increased with increasing total annual household income level. Males were more likely to report engaging in risky practices than were females. Specific high-risk behaviors of public health concern were reported by elderly individuals (e.g., consuming undercooked eggs), children (e.g., consuming chicken nuggets), and rural residents (e.g., drinking unpasteurized milk). Respondents appeared to know proper food safety practices, but did not put them into practice. Thus, educational programs emphasizing specific practices to improve food safety should be directed to targeted audiences, and they should stress the importance of consumer behavior in the safety of foods prepared at home. Further investigation of consumer perceptions is needed to design such programs to effectively increase the implementation of safe food practices by consumers.

Over-confident and under-competent: exploring the importance of food safety education specific to high school students

“…Broadly, these findings are consistent with the literature on middle school and college aged individuals, who also have low food literacy and poor food safety knowledge (Abbot et al, 2009;Green and Knechtges, 2015;Haapala and Probart, 2004;Lynch et al, 2008;Pedigo et al, 2009;Quick et al, 2013;Richards et al, 2008;Yarrow et al, 2009), limited food handling experience and skills (Abbot et al, 2012;Haapala and Probart, 2004;Morrone and Rathbun, 2003;Nesbitt et al, 2009), and who regularly engage in risky food handling practices and eating behaviours (Abbot et al, 2012;Altekruse et al, 1999;ByrdBredbenner et al, 2008;Haapala and Probart, 2004;Nesbitt et al, 2009;Patil et al, 2005). Although differences in study times and populations preclude specific comparisons, our findings from high school students may suggest that such factors may remain relatively unchanged across the middle school to college years.…”

“…They often work in the food industry (Haapala and Probart, 2004;Usalcas, 2005;Yarrow et al, 2009) and are beginning to take greater responsibility for food handling (Burke and Dworkin, 2015). They also have low food safety knowledge (Abbot et al, 2009;Green and Knechtges, 2015;Haapala and Probart, 2004;Lynch et al, 2008;Majowicz et al, 2017;Pedigo et al, 2009;Q uick et al, 2013;Richards et al, 2008;Yarrow et al, 2009), lack safe food handling experience and skills (Abbot et al, 2012;Haapala and Probart, 2004;Majowicz et al, 2017;Morrone and Rathbun, 2003;Nesbitt et al, 2009), and engage in risky food handling practices (Abbot et al, 2012;Altekruse et al, 1999;Haapala and Probart, 2004).…”

Impact of Rurality, Broiler Operations, and Community Socioeconomic Factors on the Risk of Campylobacteriosis in Maryland

“…(Tan, 2008) Additionally, it has been reported that unsafe food preparation practices may actually rise as total annual household income increases. Although this might appear counter-intuitive, this association has been documented by Nesbitt et al (2009) …”

Water consumption habits of a south-western Ontario community

“…Within that goal, we addressed two objectives. The first objective was to determine the daily volume of total cold water Sample size calculations incorporated objectives of the larger food and water consumption study (Nesbitt 2006).…”