Abstract

Foodborne illnesses may be related to many food production factors with home practices of consumers playing an important role in food safety. Consumer behavior for handling food leftovers has been studied, however little work on comparisons among countries has been published. The objective of this study was to investigate home food leftover practices of people from North American, South American, and European countries. Surveys were conducted with approximately 100 or more consumers in Argentina, Colombia, the United States, Estonia, Italy, Russia, and Spain. The participants responded to questions related to the length of time different types of food leftovers; such as meat, fresh salads, or restaurant dishes would be kept refrigerated or would be left at room temperature before refrigeration. Researchers also investigated how consumers would determine if the food was still safe for consumption. Potentially risky behaviors were observed in all seven countries. For instance, 55.8% of Estonians, 25% of Russians and 25.8% of Argentinean participants left food out at room temperature for several hours before storing in the refrigerator. Furthermore, 25%–29% of Colombian, Estonian, and Spanish consumers would look, smell, and taste leftovers to determine its probable safety. Correct handling of leftovers is an important aspect of consumer food safety. Although the surveys cannot be representative of all consumers in each country, they do provide an initial overview of comparative practices for handling leftovers among different countries. This provides government and educators with information on potential universal and unique consumer food safety issues related to handling leftover foods among various countries.

Highlights

  • Poor food handling may result in a large number of foodborne illnesses in many countries [1]. food handling risks can be reduced during production, the consumer has the ultimate responsibility for the safe storage and preparation of food eaten in the home

  • The questionnaires were originally created in English, translated into Italian, Estonian, Russian, and Spanish by native speakers, and back-translated into English to ensure the information the questionnaires were gathering matched across countries

  • Education levels among the respondents was higher in the United States, Italy, Estonia, Russia, and Spain than in other countries; in part reflecting the country; in part reflecting the communities in which the surveys were conducted, and in part reflecting the differences in survey methodology used in various locations

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Summary

Introduction

Poor food handling may result in a large number of foodborne illnesses in many countries [1]. food handling risks can be reduced during production, the consumer has the ultimate responsibility for the safe storage and preparation of food eaten in the home. A large portion of consumers underestimate or are unaware of the risk of contracting foodborne diseases from improper practices related to handling food at home [2]. There are general food safety guidelines available by the World Health Organization that have been translated into several languages [4]. It is not clear how widespread the knowledge of these guidelines are by consumers. Government and educational websites in many countries do not mention the availability of educational food safety programming to consumers and little data has been published showing widespread adoption and use of the guidelines in health campaigns

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