Survey Spotlights Public Perceptions of Food Safety

From the get-go food safety has been all about food handling and food preparation. But in case some didn’t get the memo, the International Food Information Council Foundation in 2006 endeavoured to track food-safety practices in the U.S. population amid growing food-safety incidents and outbreaks of foodborne illnesses.

Because proper food and food-product handling is essential in preventing foodborne illness outbreaks, many restaurant owners now require a food handler certification or a food safety certification as a hiring requisite. Unfortunately, weak links still remain in the human food-supply chain.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food contamination causes 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths each year in the United States. Yearly also, food contamination results in about a thousand foodborne disease outbreaks across America.

The landmark national study was initiated to understand how Americans view important food-safety, nutrition, and health-related topics. The overriding goal was to assemble good data to equip food-safety authorities to educate people on how to stay safe from foodborne illnesses such as E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella.

"Because only safe food can be nutritious food, this research is an important part of the applied research needed to ensure a wholesome food supply for the United States," said an article on the foundation's Food and Health Survey, 2006-2010, as quoted by foodsafetynews.com. The survey appears in the June 2012 issue of the peer-reviewed Food Protection Trends.

Among the unexpected findings of the study is the significant decline between 2006 and 1010 in the following key food-safety practices: hand washing, separating raw meat and poultry from ready-to-eat food products, washing cutting boards, cooking to required temperatures, properly storing leftovers, and following microwave cooking instructions.