Food Handling Behaviors Associated with Reported Acute Gastrointestinal Disease That May Have Been Caused by Food

Family food handling by women plays a key role in the risk of foodborne acute gastroenteritis. Nevertheless, the data indicating the association between women's food handling and foodborne disease has not been reported in the People's Republic of China. The purpose of this study was to determinate the status of food handling for women and the association between food handling behaviors and foodborne acute gastroenteritis. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from 1 September 2015 to 30 August 2016 in Anhui Province, China. Data on foodborne disease and food handling was collected via a questionnaire. Of the 630 respondents included in the study, 99 (16.0%) reported having experienced symptoms in the past 4 weeks of acute gastroenteritis that may have been caused by food. The following behaviors were prevalent in respondents: (i) infrequently boiling kitchen utensils to disinfect (70.6%); (ii) infrequently heating cooked food purchased from outside the home (64.3%); (iii) infrequently storing leftovers in the refrigerator (38.6%); and (iv) often purchasing stale raw vegetables, meat, and other ingredients (23.3%). Urban and rural respondents differed significantly in their answers to the food handling questions. Foodborne acute gastroenteritis was associated with the following behaviors: (i) infrequently heating milk (odds ratio [OR] = 2.587, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.396 to 6.458); (ii) infrequently heating leftovers stored in the refrigerator (OR = 16.967, 95% CI = 9.030 to 31.882); (iii) infrequently thoroughly heating kidney beans (OR = 3.524, 95% CI = 1.834 to 6.773); (iv) often storing raw and cooked meat in the same container (OR = 10.216, 95% CI = 5.109 to 20.431); and (v) often eating raw seafood (OR = 2.587, 95% CI = 1.424 to 4.700). Inappropriate food handling behaviors of women in the family are associated with foodborne acute gastroenteritis. Infrequent thorough heating and improper food storage are the most critical risk factors in foodborne acute gastroenteritis.