We had been thinking about moving for over two years but needed our next home to meet specific criteria. Our Realty Executives agent didn't just wait for homes to hit the MLS. With her strong community ties, she was aware of unlisted potential sales and scoured the 'hood for us. In less than one month she found us the perfect home. Getting ready to sell your home? Staging, inspections, appraisals, OH MY! We've gathered loads of good advice from the pros to help ease your transition and maximize your return! Want to know what your monthly mortgage payment will be? Use our handy calculator to help you estimate the financial side of home buying. Complete the applicable field(s) and click “Calculate” to see the results. Volume 38, April 2014, Pages 157–173 Understanding consumers' food safety practices is helpful in reducing food-borne illness. A systematic literature search was conducted to establish a baseline of consumer food safety practices in Canada, identify research gaps and make recommendations for future research.

To date, this is the first study examining Canadian populations which gathers survey results measuring consumer food safety practices from both peer-reviewed, published literature and non-peer-reviewed public opinion research reports. suzumo sushi machine priceThe search found 26 Canadian publications from 1998 to 2011. sushi in suhl streamQuestions covered frequency of food preparation, sources of food safety information, consumer confidence and assigned food safety responsibility, awareness of food safety, knowledge of high-risk groups and high-risk foods, and personal experience with food-borne illness. jiro dreams of sushi citationFood safety behaviours were evaluated according to the ‘clean’, ‘separate’, ‘chill’ and ‘cook’ principles emphasized by the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education's FightBAC® Program. niko sushi menu amy croft

Overall, results differed considerably between studies due to variations in study designs, populations, survey questions and definitions of correct behaviour. However, the analysis provided a general indication of areas requiring targeted consumer food safety education such as increasing thermometer use when cooking meats, raising awareness of high-risk populations and knowledge of high-risk foods, and expanding messaging to the internet and social media. sushi conveyor belt scottsdaleConsumer food safety studies in Canada were limited to self-reported behaviours. sushi vom hassel online bestellenFuture research could include observational studies to validate results from self-reported food safety practices, and provide more accurate information on consumer food handling practices. Finally, establishing a set of standard food safety questions that can be compared between future surveys would contribute to a comprehensive baseline against which future food safety interventions could be measured.

Enteric illness of food-borne origin remain an important public health issue in Canada and worldwide (Adak et al., 2000, Hoogenboom-Verdegaal et al., 1994, Lee and Middleton, 2003, Majowicz et al., 2006 and Mead et al., 1999). It is estimated that there are 4 million episodes of domestically acquired, food-borne illness in Canada (Thomas et al., 2013), with acute gastrointestinal illness costing approximately $3.7 billion annually (Thomas, Majowicz, Pollari, & Sockett, 2008). Effective reduction of food-borne illnesses in Canada depends, in part, on an understanding of the ways in which humans come in contact with the bacteria, viruses and parasites that cause food-borne illness.Mishandling of food can occur during food preparation, handling and storage; and studies show that consumers have inadequate knowledge about measures needed to prevent food-borne illness in the home (Medeiros, Hillers, Kendall, & Mason, 2001). There are a number of factors which are likely to contribute to outbreaks of food-borne illness in the home, including a raw food supply that may be contaminated, a lack of food safety knowledge among the general public, mistakes in food handling and preparation at home.

Furthermore, the deliberate consumption of raw and undercooked foods often described as a ‘risky’ eating behaviour is an important factor contributing to food-borne disease (Kaferstein, 2003).In Canada, a number of organizations (i.e. the Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada and Canadian Food Inspection Agency) promote safe food handling, most notably the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education's FightBAC® Program that emphasizes four main messages: ‘Clean’, ‘Separate’, ‘Chill’, and ‘Cook’. The ‘clean’ step refers to washing of hands and kitchen surfaces appropriately, ‘separate’ to avoiding cross-contamination in the kitchen, ‘chill’ to refrigerating items promptly and at proper temperatures, and ‘cook’ to cooking items to recommended temperatures (Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education, 2011). These programs are most effective when the messaging is appropriately targeted to the relevant audience (Jacob, Mathiasen, & Powell, 2010).

To date there is no single summary document regarding safe food handling behaviour and knowledge of Canadians, or an analysis of research gaps. This paper is the first in Canada to compile all relevant literature including peer reviewed, published, and non-peer-reviewed public opinion reports (POR) to establish a baseline of Canadian consumer food safety knowledge and behaviour. The objectives of this review are: to establish a baseline of domestic consumer food safety handling practices in Canada; identify gaps in the knowledge of consumer food safety practices; and make recommendations for future research.An extensive systematic search of peer-reviewed published and grey (including POR) literature was conducted to locate relevant research on consumer food safety. Electronic searches of computer library databases included: PubMed, Web of Knowledge, the Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, Agricola, CAB Abstracts, Scopus, AgEcon Search and Proquest Theses. The search algorithm was composed of combinations of consumer terms (“consumer”, “public”, “home”, “domestic”, “household”, ”food preparer/food-preparer”, “food-handler/food handler”, “cook”), food safety terms (“food safety”, “food-handling/food handling”, “food preparation”, “safe handling/safe-handling”) and behaviour terms (“knowledge”, “awareness”, “behavior/behaviour”, “practice”, “perception”, “belief”, “attitude”) and in some situations simplified due to the limitations of the search engines.

The search was carried out in English and the timeframe was limited from 1997 to 2011.The Library and Archives Canada online databases (Government of Canada, 2007, Government of Canada, 2009 and Public Works and Government Services Canada) were searched to obtain all relevant public opinion reports. Personal communication with library resource experts resulted in the acquisition of additional reports that were not available online. Screening of reference lists from relevant public opinion reports facilitated the identification of additional documents.Studies selected for review were those that examined consumers' knowledge, perception and/or behaviour related to safe food handling practices within the home environment. The perception category dealt with questions of how food quality and safety is perceived by consumers, and how these perceptions influence consumer decision-making. The knowledge category comprised general knowledge of food safety and awareness of high-risk foods, high-risk groups, and sources of information.

The behaviour category consisted of data gathered through self-reported behaviour of respondents and is organized in terms of the ‘cook’, ‘chill’, ‘clean’ and ‘separate’ principles.Only studies pertaining to Canadian consumers and that exclusively assessed individual consumer and targeted consumer groups were included in this review. Consumers were defined as anyone who prepared food on a regular basis within the home and was not a professional food handler. All methods of data collection including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observational studies, were considered. Studies were classified as either externally peer-reviewed (i.e. published in scientific journal and subjected to a rigorous evaluation through the peer-review process) (Simon Fraser University, 2011) or POR (i.e. involved the planned gathering of opinions, attitudes, perceptions, judgements, feelings, ideas, reactions, or views from persons through quantitative or qualitative methods, irrespective of size or cost) (Government of Canada, 2007 and Government of Canada