The Food Standards Agency has published a review of how people manage food safety in their homes and what implications these behaviours could have on their health.
Background
Part of the Agency’s Foodborne Disease Strategy is to provide information and advice to the public on how they can protect themselves from food poisoning in their own homes. In order to do this effectively, the Agency needs to understand how different people behave and the various factors that might influence risky behaviours.
This project was commissioned as part of a package of work to investigate people’s behaviours in relation to food safety in home. It complements a series of questions in the Food and You survey and further qualitative/observation research the Agency is undertaking in 2011.
The study draws on existing evidence and interviews with experts in the field to explore what is already known about food safety in the home, how this topic has been explored in the past and where there are gaps in the evidence base.
Results and findings
The available evidence highlighted a number of areas where people are not following good food safety practice including avoiding cross contamination, chilling foods properly and using food safety labelling appropriately.
The relationship between knowledge and behaviour was found to be influenced by perceptions of risk and optimism bias (people believe they are not vulnerable to food poisoning), rather than being a perfect, linear relationship.
The research highlighted the need for interventions to be appropriately targeted, considered the use of social marketing techniques and recommended that advice is given via healthcare professionals for immunocompromised individuals.
The review highlighted some key gaps in the existing evidence base including information on vulnerable groups, the extent to which vulnerable groups receive information about food safety risks and understanding actual (as opposed to self reported) behaviour.
http://www.food.gov.uk/science/socsci/ssres/foodsafetyss/x04009/
Comments