Uninvited Guests at the Table – A Consumer Intervention for Safe Poultry Preparation

Abstract

AbstractThe goal of this longitudinal study was to investigate the efficacy of an intervention to increase awareness of food safety during the preparation of raw poultry in a sample of first year college students. At the first measurement point, baseline variables were assessed, and participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: two experimental groups and a control group. At the second measurement point, the two experimental groups received the intervention. At the final measurement point, a month after the intervention, follow‐up variables were assessed. The major outcome variables investigated were knowledge and self‐reported safe poultry preparation behavior. Despite the high overall knowledge at the first measurement point, the participants exhibited numerous knowledge gaps, which were successfully overcome by the intervention. Providing knowledge was essential in motivating participants to pay more attention to certain actions related to safely preparing poultry, while the cues played only a minor role in changing participants' behaviors.Practical ApplicationsHome‐cooked poultry is believed to be the most common transmission route of the bacteria Campylobacter to humans. Despite efforts to reduce the contamination rate at the poultry production stage, contamination rates remain high, and hence endanger the consumer. Evidently, consumers are unaware of and do not practice basic precautions when preparing dishes with raw poultry. In the present research, the consumer perspective was investigated. It is necessary to communicate the risks of unsafe poultry preparation to the consumer in order to facilitate informed decisions and behavior, and reduce incidence rates of foodborne illnesses. The results offer support for the efficacy of providing knowledge to correct people's misconceptions and increase their awareness of food safety issues. Moreover, it provides pointers for future risk communication related to the topic of safe domestic food handling.