A case study of food handler hand hygiene compliance in high-care and high-risk food manufacturing environments using covert-observation

Inclusion of Food Safety Information in Home-delivered U.K. Meal-kit Recipes

Home-delivered meal-kit recipe boxes provide consumers with fresh, measured ingredients requiring storage, preparation, and cooking by following a recipe card.Previous literature has suggested that including food safety information within recipes may positively impact behavior. Therefore, there is a need to better understand what food safety information is included on the meal-kit recipe cards. Content analysis was performed on U.K. meal-kit provider recipe cards (n = 359) obtained using citizen science methods. Although 46% of recipes referred to handwashing at the start of recipe preparation, these stated 'wash hands' with no further advice regarding hand hygiene, and half (48%) did not refer to handwashing during recipe preparation. Most recipes included produce (99%) and referred to washing fruit and vegetables (88%). For meal-kits that provided animal proteins (n = 332), 50% referred to storing ingredients in the fridge, and only one recipe referred to recommended temperatures (≤5°C). Where applicable (n = 346), food safety advice to prevent cross-contamination was present in 51% of recipes.Statements concerning cooking adequacy of animal proteins (n = 1306) included subjective cooking guidance, with 35% referring to visual assessment of color and 26% cooking duration. For best practice food safety guidance, two recipes referred to end-point temperature, and one stated to use a temperature probe. While all meal-kit providers provided some food safety-related information in reviewed recipes, information was often not sufficient to inform consumers about food safety risk-reducing behaviors in the domestic setting. Observational research is needed to understand consumer engagement with how food safety information in meal-kit recipes impacts the behavior of consumers.

Norovirus transmission mitigation strategies during simulated produce harvest and packing

In the agricultural setting, core global food safety elements, such as hand hygiene and worker furlough, should reduce the risk of norovirus contamination on fresh produce. However, the effect of these practices has not been characterized. Using a quantitative microbial risk model, we evaluated the individual and combined effect of farm-based hand hygiene and worker furlough practices on the maximum risk of norovirus infection from three produce commodities (open leaf lettuce, vine tomatoes, and raspberries). Specifically, we tested two scenarios where a harvester's and packer's norovirus infection status was: 1) assumed positive; or 2) assigned based on community norovirus prevalence estimates. In the first scenario with a norovirus-positive harvester and packer, none of the individual interventions modeled reduced produce contamination to below the norovirus infectious dose. However, combined interventions, particularly high handwashing compliance (100%) and efficacy (6 log10 virus removal achieved using soap and water for 30 s), reduced produce contamination to <1-82 residual virus. Translating produce contamination to maximum consumer infection risk, 100% handwashing with a 5 log10 virus removal was necessary to achieve an infection risk below the threshold of 0.032 infections per consumption event. When community-based norovirus prevalence estimates were applied to the harvester and packer, the single interventions of 100% handwashing with 3 log10 virus removal (average 0.02 infection risk per consumption event) or furlough of the packer (average 0.03 infection risk per consumption event) reduced maximum infection risk to below the 0.032 threshold for all commodities. Bundled interventions (worker furlough, 100% glove compliance, and 100% handwashing with 1-log10 virus reduction) resulted in a maximum risk of 0.02 per consumption event across all commodities. These results advance the evidence-base for global produce safety standards as effective norovirus contamination and risk mitigation strategies.