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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Carol Byrd-Bredbenner, PhD, RD, FADA¹, Donald Schaffner, PhD², Christine Bruhn, PhD, RD³, Lydia Blalock, PhD⁴, and Virginia Wheatley, MPH, REHS¹. (1) Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 26 Nichol Ave, Davison Room 214, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, 732-932-2382, bredbenner@aesop.rutgers.edu, (2) Food Science, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 65 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, (3) Food Science and Technology, University of California - Davis, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA 95616, (4) Agricultural & Resource Management Agents, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 71 Lipman Drive, New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Prevention of foodborne illness starts in the kitchen, including the dorm room or first apartment kitchen; however, little is known about the food handling practices of young adults. Using standard procedures, experts (n=7) developed, validated, pilot-tested, and refined a self-reported food safety behavior questionnaire with 2 scales: safe food handling practices (SFHPs) (34 items, Cronbach alpha = 0.74) and risky eating behaviors (REBs) (27 items, alpha = 0.77). Each SFHP earned one point with scale scores normalized to 100. Each risky food consumed earned one point with scores ranging from 0-27 (riskiest). The questionnaire was administered as part of a larger nationwide online food safety survey of young adults (n=4274, mean age=19.9±1.6SD years, range=16-26, 65% female) from 16 universities. Overall, results indicated poor compliance with SFHPs (mean score=44.5±11.9SD). The majority did not use food thermometers (64%), stored cooked foods unsafely (59%), changed their dish towels/cloths/sponges less than once per week (51%), and did not usually store raw meat on the lowest refrigerator shelf (46%). Participants engaged in few REBs (mean=5.6±3.8SD) indicated by low consumption of raw/undercooked animal protein and unpasteurized milk/cheese or juice. Frequently consumed high risk foods were raw cookie/cake batter (53%), insufficiently reheated leftovers (42%), and sushi (28%). By gender, females had significantly higher SFHPs than males (mean=46.3±11.7SD vs. 40.9±11.7SD, p<0.0001) and significantly fewer REBs (mean=5.1±3.3SD vs. 6.5±4.5SD, p<0.0001). Young adults have poor SFHPs, but have low consumption of foods commonly contaminated with foodborne pathogens. Food safety education should be targeted at improving SFHPs, particularly among males.

Learning Objectives:

Upon attendance at the session, those present will be able to
• Describe the safe food handling practices of young adults.
• Describe the consumption by young adults of foods commonly contaminated with foodborne pathogens.
• Discuss the importance of developing and delivering public health messages about safe food handling in the prevention of foodborne illness to young adults.

Keywords: Food Safety, Behavioral Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered