Food safety practices among Norwegian consumers.

An informed consumer can compensate for several potential food safety violations or contaminations that may occur earlier in the food production chain. However, a consumer can also destroy the work of others in the chain by poor food handling practices, e.g., by storing chilled ready-to-eat foods at abusive temperatures. To target risk-reducing strategies, consumer groups with high-risk behavior should be identified. The aim of this study was to identify demographic characteristics associated with high-risk food handling practices among Norwegian consumers. More than 2,000 randomly selected Norwegian consumers were surveyed, and the results were analyzed with a risk-based grading system, awarding demerit points for self-reported food safety violations. The violations were categorized into groups, and an ordinary multiple linear regression analysis was run on the summarized demerit score for each group and for the entire survey group as a whole. Young and elderly men were identified as the least informed consumer groups with the most unsafe practices regarding food safety. Single persons reported poorer practices than those in a relationship. People with higher education reported poorer practices than those with lower or no education, and those living in the capital of Norway (Oslo) reported following more unsafe food practices than people living elsewhere in Norway. Men reported poorer food safety practices than women in all categories with two exceptions: parboiling raw vegetables before consumption and knowledge of refrigerator temperature. These findings suggest that risk-reducing measures should target men, and a strategy is needed to change their behavior and attitudes.

Application of hazard analysis and critical control point methodology and risk-based grading to consumer food safety surveys.

Traditionally, consumer food safety survey responses have been classified as either "right" or "wrong" and food handling practices that are associated with high risk of infection have been treated in the same way as practices with lower risks. In this study, a risk-based method for consumer food safety surveys has been developed, and HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control point) methodology was used for selecting relevant questions. We conducted a nationally representative Web-based survey (n = 2,008), and to fit the self-reported answers we adjusted a risk-based grading system originally developed for observational studies. The results of the survey were analyzed both with the traditional "right" and "wrong" classification and with the risk-based grading system. The results using the two methods were very different. Only 5 of the 10 most frequent food handling violations were among the 10 practices associated with the highest risk. These 10 practices dealt with different aspects of heat treatment (lacking or insufficient), whereas the majority of the most frequent violations involved storing food at room temperature for too long. Use of the risk-based grading system for survey responses gave a more realistic picture of risks associated with domestic food handling practices. The method highlighted important violations and minor errors, which are performed by most people and are not associated with significant risk. Surveys built on a HACCP-based approach with risk-based grading will contribute to a better understanding of domestic food handling practices and will be of great value for targeted information and educational activities.

Performance of two commercial rapid methods for sampling and detection of Listeria in small-scale cheese producing and salmon processing environments.

Two commercially available all-in-one swab rapid detection systems for Listeria spp. (InSite Listeria Test and Path-Chek hygiene Listeria) were tested for performance in cheese production environments and salmon processing facilities. Sampling was conducted both on clean surfaces and during production. A total of 338 samples were taken using the swabs (175 in cheese environments, 163 in salmon environments). Conventional sampling using sterile cloths and standardized qualitative detection of Listeria spp. according to NMKL method no. 136 was performed in parallel from 64 sampling sites in the salmon processing facilities and 40 sampling sites in the cheese production facilities. Results showed that both rapid swab tests detected Listeria spp.; however, they returned significant amounts of false positives. Presence of Listeria spp. was indicated in 47% and 41% of all swabs in the cheese and salmon environments, respectively. Enrichment followed by selective plating and Listeria specific PCR confirmed none of the 82 presumptive positive swabs from the cheese environment and 16 of 67 presumptive positive swabs from the salmon environments, respectively. Further analysis showed that several other bacteria, including Enterococcus spp. and Carnobacterium maltaromaticum, were the source of false positive swab results. From salmon processing facilities, using cloth sampling and standard analyses, 22% Listeria positive sampling sites were confirmed compared to 9% and 11% positives obtained using InSite or Path-Chek detection systems. From the cheese production environments, no Listeria positive sites were confirmed using either swab or cloth sampling. In conclusion, the use of these rapid detection methods was not suited in the selected environments due to large numbers of false positives, caused by the background flora.