Food Handling in the Home

Abstract

With domestic kitchen practices implicated in approximately one-third of the global estimated 420000 deaths/year attributed to 31 key foodborne pathogens, it has become an imperative to get behind kitchen doors to unravel the complex link between domestic food handling practices and domestic originating foodborne illness. This article critiques how such practices have been investigated and how, through novel interdisciplinary collaborations and methodological innovations, new insights are emerging. Inspired by theories of social practice, our domestic spaces, the influence of others (people and pets), our access to, and functionality of, key resources and appliances and our core competencies, skills and knowledge as performers are all recognized as being central to how we perform our domestic food practices. A multitude of ‘good reasons’ why households engage in ‘bad’ practices are emerging which in turn are informing how food safety agencies tackle, and reduce, the incidence of domestic originated foodborne illness.