Unless your question is about parboiling or the proper temperature setting for a refrigerator, don’t look to a Norwegian man for the answer to your food safety question. Researchers in Norway hoping to reduce risky consumer food safety habits with targeted messages wondered which segments of the population had the riskiest behaviors. They surveyed 2,000 randomly selected people about food safety habits and found that in all but two categories, parboiling and the proper refrigerator temperature, men had the riskiest food safety behaviors.
If survey answers were considered a food safety violation, they were organized into groups. Men were the biggest violators overall. Middle aged men were slightly less prone to risky behaviors than young or elderly men. Other findings revealed that single people had worse food safety practices than those in relationships. People with higher education reported worse practices than those with lower or no education and people living in the capital of Norway, Oslo, had worse food safety practices than people living elsewhere in Norway.
Researchers say these findings suggest that measures intended to improve food safety habits among consumers should be targeted at men. No word yet on a parboiling primer for women.
