Raw Meat and Poultry-Specific Knowledge Gaps among

1. Raw Meat and Poultry-Specific Knowledge Gaps among Meat and Poultry Chicago Restaurant Food Handlers Patpong Udompat, MS, Li Liu, PhD, Mark S. Dworkin, MD MPH&TM University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, Chicago, IL Beef may be placed in the microwave to defrost (True) Results Background Discussion Even though we limited the subanalysis to meat and poultry handlers responses to meat and poultry-specific questions (and 66% of them surveyed were certified), the mean knowledge score (72%) was not substantially higher than the mean score using a more general food safety knowledge survey (72%). • There were also important knowledge gaps related to knowledge of proper storage of raw meat, appropriate defrosting of beef and poultry, and of cross contamination. • More than 1/3 of these food handlers did not know about the severity of illness that may result from eating incompletely cooked beef. This raises the concern that they may not appreciate the rationale for the recommendations for checking temperatures in a menu item such as meatloaf. • We recommend that local health departments should focus on educating meat and poultry handlers because almost 50% of food handlers and almost 35% of certified food handlers had aknowledge score below 70%. • Food safety certification should require a higher level of knowledge to be considered certified or more frequent verification that knowledge is retained with an emphasis on knowledge of proper storage, cooking temperatures, severity of illness, and prevention of cross contamination. k Raw meat and poultry are potentially hazardous commonly handled and cooked foods in restaurants. In a knowledge survey of 508 restaurant food handlers performed in Chicago restaurants in 2009, the overall mean knowledge score was only 72%. However, this knowledge score may be underestimated because the survey included some questions that may not be relevant to each food handler’s specific duties. We analyzed knowledge data concerning meat and poultry food handling only among the subset of food handlers that work with meat and poultry. Table 1: Food Handler and Restaurant Characteristics (N= 372) Figure 1: Percentage of Incorrect Responses to Each Meat and Poultry-Specific Knowledge Question Raw meat can be stored on foil-lined shelves to prevent dripping onto other foods (False) Raw meat can be stored anywhere in a refrigerator as long as it is wrapped in plastic (False) Eating ground meat that is not completely cooked can cause bloody diarrhea (True) Raw meat can be stored below ready to serve food (True) Beef may be placed in cold water to defrost (True) It is safe to put frozen chicken breast on the counter to thaw (False) Beef may be placed on the counter to defrost (False) Objectives Vegetables for a salad splashed with a few drops of raw chicken juice should not be rinsed, but instead must be thrown away (True) The objective of this study was to determine if the knowledge score of food handlers would be much higher than previously recorded if the score was based only on questions relevant to their food handling duties. Beef may be placed in the refrigerator to defrost (True) Uncooked beef is potentially contaminated with germs that can cause people to be hospitalized or die (True) Raw meat can be stored above ready to serve food (False) Uncooked chicken is potentially contaminated with germs that can cause people to become very ill (True) Methods We analyzed data derived from a 41-question survey of 508 food handlers from 125 participating restaurants in Chicago. Only the 372 meat and poultry handlers were included in the analysis. The survey had true-false or multiple-choice format (incorrect responses or ”do not know” were assigned to 0) and included 13 questions specific to meat or poultry handling or cooking processes (Figure 1). Only these 13 meat and poultry-specific knowledge questions were analyzed to determine the knowledge score. For comparison, these 372 food handlers scored 72% overall on the general knowledge survey. The percentage of incorrect responses among meat and poultry handlers was compared and the frequency distributions of meat and poultry specific knowledge questions was determined. Figure 2: Frequency Distribution of Meat and Poultry-Specific Knowledge Questions among Meat and Poultry Food handlers (N =372) Figure 3: Frequency Distribution of Meat and Poultry-Specific Knowledge Questions among Certified Meat and Poultry Food Handlers (N= 245) Percent ~ 50 % of food handlers scored below 70 % ~ 35% of certified food handlers scored below 70 % Acknowledgements • Overall mean score= 72% (9.4 correct/13 questions) • Standard deviation= 16% • Range= 15%-100% • Palak Panchal, MPH • IDPH Division of Food, Drugs and Dairies and City of Chicago Health Department • Overall mean score= 77% (10 correct/13 questions) • Standard deviation= 13.8% • Range= 38%-100% Contact • Mark Dworkin, MD MPH&TM • University of Illinois at Chicago • Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics • mdworkin@uic.edu • Patpong Udompat, PhD student • University of Illinois at Chicago • Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics • pudomp2@uic.edu • Research Funded By: • Cooperative State Research, Education, And Extension • Service (CSREES), US Department of Agriculture(Grant no. USDA 2008-01691) Number of correct questions