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Cooking Practices in the Kitchen—Observed Versus Predicted Behavior
Author(s) -
Van Asselt Esther,
Fischer Arnout,
De Jong Aarieke E. I.,
Nauta Maarten J.,
De Jonge Rob
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2008.01189.x
Subject(s) - contamination , environmental science , food science , mathematics , biology , ecology
Cross‐contamination and undercooking are major factors responsible for campylobacteriosis and as such should be incorporated in microbiological risk assessment. A previous paper by van Asselt et al. ( 1 ) quantified cross‐contamination routes from chicken breast fillet via hand, cutting board, and knife ending up in a prepared chicken‐curry salad in the domestic kitchen. The aim of the current article was to validate the obtained transfer rates with consumer data obtained by video observations and microbial analyses of a home prepared chicken‐curry salad. Results showed a wide range of microbial contamination levels in the final salad, caused by various cross‐contamination practices and heating times varying from 2′44″ to 41′30″. Model predictions indicated that cooking times should be at least 8 minutes and cutting boards need to be changed after cutting raw chicken in order to obtain safe bacterial levels in the final salad. The model predicted around 75% of the variance in cross‐contamination behavior. Accuracy of the model can further be improved by including other cross‐contamination routes besides hands, cutting boards, and knives. The model proved to be fail‐safe, which implies it can be used as a worst‐case estimate to assess the importance of cross‐contamination in the home.