Investigating the predictors of safe food handling among parents of young children in the USA

Foodborne illness, or food poisoning, is a global health issue, affecting over 600 million people each year. Contrary to lay beliefs, the majority of food poisoning occurs as a result of improperly handling food within the home. The past decade has seen an increase in research using theoretical frameworks to investigate predictors of safe food handling, however, this research has been hampered by a focus on motivational models of behaviour and the conceptualisation of safe food handling as a unitary behaviour. Additionally, little research has investigated safe food handling in relation to a particularly susceptible group: young children. Therefore, the aim of this study was to use a dual process theory to explore the predictors of four safe food handling behaviours among parents of young children. One-hundred and thirty-six participants, recruited via CloudResearch, completed selfreport measures of intention, habit, self-control, self-efficacy and safe food handling knowledge, and, one week later, completed self-report measures of their engagement in safe food handling behaviours. Results of logistic regression analyses revealed that intention, self-control and self-efficacy significantly predicted cleaning hands and surfaces before preparing food, and knowledge significantly predicted cooking food properly and storing raw and cooked food separately. These findings suggest that there is no one consistently significant predictor of all four safe food handling behaviours, however, knowledge did appear to be an important influence on safe food handling behaviours less familiar to consumers over and above other known predictors for safe food handling behaviours. Educational interventions should focus on increasing safe food handling knowledge for less familiar safe food handling behaviours whereas self-control interventions may be more beneficial for increasing more familiar behaviours such as cleaning hands and surfaces before preparing food.

Automated summary

Foodborne illness affects over 600 million people globally each year, with most cases caused by improper food handling at home. Research has shown that there are various factors influencing safe food handling behaviors, with knowledge playing a significant role in less familiar behaviors for consumers.