Cooking practices in the kitchen-observed versus predicted behavior.
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.
van Asselt
Esther
E
RIKILT--Institute of Food Safety, PO Box 230, 6700 AE Wageningen, The Netherlands. esther.vanasselt@wur.nl
Fischer
Arnout
A
de Jong
Aarieke E I
AE
Nauta
Maarten J
MJ
de Jonge
Rob
R
D003296:Cooking; D005516:Food Microbiology; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018570:Risk Assessment