The key findings from the Meal Preparation Experiment Related to Poultry Washing, which revealed a host of bad cleaning habits in the kitchen when cooks are working with poultry, are summarized below. These findings were included in the Executive Summary, released in August 2019.

The references to e-mails concern three notes that were mailed to treatment group participants from the Office of Public Affairs and Consumer Education. One message focused on not washing poultry before cooking to avoid cross-contamination and included a link to a Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) YouTube video; one recommended using separate cutting boards for raw and ready-to-eat foods; and one featured an FSIS “Clean” infographic with information on not washing poultry and the messages to wash hands for 20 seconds with soap and warm water and to wash kitchen surfaces and equipment (utensils). Control group participants did not include the intervention e-mails.

Poultry Washing

*The food safety messages in the e-mails effectively encouraged participants not to wash raw chicken thighs before cooking: 93 percent of treatment group participants did not wash the chicken compared with 39 percent for the control group.

*When washing the chicken, most participants rinsed it in the sink rather than submerging it in the sink or container. Participants who wash chicken when preparing it at home reported that they did so to remove blood/slime (30 percent) or because that is how a family member does it (19 percent).

*In the post-observation interviews, 66 percent of participants stated that reading the e-mail messages influenced their cooking behavior in the kitchen. Of these participants, 40 percent reported that their actions were influenced by learning new information about preparing poultry.

Handwashing

Proper handwashing was addressed in one of the e-mail messages but did not influence participants’ handwashing practices. Among all handwashing events required before or during meal preparation, only two percent included all steps necessary to be considered an adequate handwashing event (defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended steps).

There were no significant differences in terms of handwashing events attempted and successful and unsuccessful handwashing attempts. The most documented reason for not successfully washing hands was failing to rub hands with soap for at least 20 seconds.

Cleaning & Sanitizing Surfaces & Equipment

The intervention did not appear to affect whether participants attempted cleaning and sanitizing when required or whether it was successful for the kitchen counter, the sink among poultry washers, and knives or cutting boards used to prepare chicken. There was not a significant difference in successful cleaning and sanitizing events between the control and treatment groups.

The use of the same cutting board for preparing the chicken and the salad was lower among treatment group participants compared with the control group, suggesting an intervention effect — one of the e-mail messages advised using separate cutting boards for raw meat/poultry and ready-to-eat foods.

Cross-Contamination & Microbiological Analysis

*The lettuce from the prepared salad was found to be contaminated at a frequency of 26 percent and 20 percent for poultry washers and non-washers, respectively. Hand-facilitated cross-contamination is suspected to be an important factor in explaining this level of cross-contamination.

*High levels of the tracer E. coli strain DH-5 alpha detected in the sink and on the salad lettuce suggest that microbes harbored in the sink from chicken, packaging, or contaminated hands are a larger cause for concern than splashing contaminated chicken fluids onto the counter.

*There was no impact on cleaning and sanitizing or handwashing behaviors when comparing the control and treatment groups, but for non-poultry washers, participants in the control group were more likely to contaminate the salad than those in the treatment group, suggesting an intervention effect.

Thermometer Use

*47 percent of all participants used a food thermometer on at least one chicken thigh. There were no significant differences between the control and treatment groups.

*34 percent of participants in the control group used a thermometer on at least one turkey patty, while 44 percent of the control group used a thermometer on at least one chicken thigh.