Food Safety–Related Refrigeration and Freezer Practices and Attitudes of Consumers in Peoria and Surrounding Counties

Abstract

Government agencies have recently emphasized the importance of food safety. Reducing the risk of foodborne illnesses within the home requires American consumers to put government refrigeration and freezer recommendations into practice; however, little research has been conducted regarding the use of proper refrigeration and freezer storage practices by consumers. A random sample survey was conducted to examine attitudes and practices of proper refrigeration and storage techniques of consumers in Peoria County, Illinois, and to determine whether gender, age, education, and income level have an effect on these variables. Eighty-one of 500 random sample surveys mailed were returned between 10 January and 15 February 2005. The majority of the participants were female (56, 69.1%), were 50 to 59 years old (18, 22.2%), had a bachelor's degree (33, 40.7%), and had a reported total household income of 60,000 dollars or greater (39, 91.4%). Average attitudinal scores indicated that participants thought it was important to take proper steps to prevent foodborne illnesses in the home; however, 68.8% of participants scored poorly on the practice portion of the survey. Only 12.3% of participants stated that they had a thermometer in their freezer, and 24.7% had one in their refrigerator. Eighty-four percent of respondents did not store eggs correctly in the refrigerator. No significant relationships (P < 0.05) were found within this sample population. These results suggest that further evaluation of consumer practices and attitudes is needed to better understand consumers so that they can be effectively educated about the prevention of foodborne illnesses at home.

Food Safety Knowledge and Behaviors of Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) Program Participants in the United States

“…White respondents with a high school education thawed frozen meat, poultry, and fish items more safely than did Hispanic and black respondents and those without a high school diploma. Some of these results were consistent with previous reports of lower food handling practice scores for less educated and lower income consumers (24).…”

“…Because less than 10% of respondents in the present study held at least a bachelor's degree, results of this study seem to be consistent with those of other research projects. Other studies also revealed that older consumers had safer food handling practices (24,32). In the present study, higher mean food safety knowledge and behavior scores were recorded for participants Ͼ25 years old than for those who were 18 through 25 years old.…”

“…Several authors have reported that there is room for improvement in consumer food safety knowledge and food handling practices in homes (1,2,17,21,24,26,32). Researchers also found gaps between what people knew and how people handled food, even though increased food safe-ty knowledge was positively correlated with improved food handling behaviors in general (1,7,14,19,33).…”

A preventative approach to promote food safety

“…When the level of education is higher, they may have more access to health-related information sources and become more aware to food safety issues. Several studies have also reported that persons with high levels of education were more concerned about food hazards (Kwon et al, 2008, Nesbitt et al, 2009, Towns et al, 2006.…”

Apparent and content validation of maternal self-efficiency scale for prevention of childhood diarrhea

“…Item 10 (I manage not to mix raw and cooked food on the same shelf in the refrigerator), an aspect which some authors mention as being relevant within the context of child diarrhea (19)(20) , was considered both difficult to understand and also not relevant to the construct of the scale, having been removed from the EAPDI, having obtained an IVC of less than 0.8.…”