Food Protection Trends - January/February 2015 - 18

TABLE 2. Summary of questionnaire results (cont.)

Questions (# of responses)

Responses

% Responses

Final cook temperature (48)

Don't check

75 (35/47)

Final temp. not known

37.5

Think final cook temp is < 165°F

10

Think final cook temp is >165°F

17

Before

23

During
After
No side dishes

45
19
13

When side dishes prepared (47)

using it to handle other food items. Sixty-four percent (n =
30) of subjects reported preparing side dishes either during
or after handling raw poultry.
Hand washing
All of the subjects reported washing their hands with hot
water and soap before food preparation begins. Subjects
also reported washing their hands 92% to 100% of the time
before, during, and after handling poultry. Additionally,
90% (n = 42) reported washing their hands before preparing side dishes (e.g., salad).
Final cook temperatures
Seventy-five percent (n = 35) of respondents reported
not taking final cook temperature of cooked poultry.
However, all subjects reported relying on look and feel to
determine adequacy of cooking. Furthermore, 38 percent
(n = 18) reported not knowing the appropriate final cook
temperature (165°F) for poultry, with one subject reporting
100°F as the final cook temperature for poultry.
RESULTS OF VIDEO OBSERVATIONS
A total of 1880 minutes (31.3 hrs.) of direct observations
of raw poultry handling was recorded and analyzed. The
average length of video observation per household was 33.6
minutes (SD = 20.0 minutes). A total of 9,166 activities
during the observational study were recorded on notational
forms for analysis. The mean number of activities per meal
preparation was 164 (SD = 92.0 activities). However, the
number of activities per household (per meal prepared)
ranged from a low of 54 to a high of 473 activities.
Poultry storage
In contrast to survey results, only 42 percent (16/38) of
households were observed storing raw poultry either on the
top shelf (n = 13) or middle shelf (n = 3).

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Food Protection Trends

January/February

Thawing procedure
Seventy-three percent of subjects (41/56) prepared
meals starting from fresh raw poultry; therefore, thawing
procedures were not observed for the majority of the
households. However, among those that started with frozen
raw poultry, 53 percent of them (8/15) thawed in the
microwave oven, 27 percent under running water (4/15),
and 20 percent (3/15) in the refrigerator overnight.
Hand washing
There were a total of 463 hand washes required
throughout the study, making up about 5% of the total
activities. Table 1 lists the criteria used to score compliance
with hand washing and other food handling practices.
Eighty percent (44/56) of subjects did not wash their hands
with soap and water at all prior to starting to prepare the
meal. Overall, 55% (253/463) of the observed activities
that should have been followed by a hand wash were not.
The mean duration of hand washing with soap and water,
when hand washing was required, was 13 seconds (SD = 7
seconds).
Among the 463 activities after which subjects were
expected to wash their hands, 182 (39%) involved bare
hand contact with raw poultry or utensils soiled with raw
poultry (e.g., washing plates that were used to handle raw
poultry). Following these 182 activities, 58% (106/182) of
subjects did not wash their hands.
Cross-contamination
Of the total 9,166 activities annotated in the observational study, 2,281 (25%) resulted in cross-contamination
events. Contamination events were defined as direct or
indirect contact of a contaminated surface (e.g., hand, towel,
utensil, or other item that had been in contact with raw
poultry) with an uncontaminated surface or item. Numerous kitchen surfaces were contaminated, such as counter
tops, utensils, appliances, cabinet handles, knobs, reusable
Food Protection Trends - January/February 2015

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