Avoiding the temperature danger zone

There is no doubt that food safety is important for public health and also no doubt stakeholders from farm to fork, including consumers, need to ensure that food remains safe. In Europe, foodborne outbreaks often occur in consumers’ homes, highlighting the importance of research on consumer food safety that leads to interventions. This article reports findings from a part of the Consumer Food Safety Study in Slovenia on the topics of thawing, heat treatment of food, keeping hot food hot and leftovers. A validated online questionnaire was designed using the Matrix of Consumer Food Safety and was completed by 1621 adults. The study assessed consumer food safety knowledge, attitudes and food-handling practices using descriptive statistics, and analyzed how knowledge, attitudes, and practices are interconnected using structural equation modeling. For the most part, participants showed good knowledge, positive attitudes and safe practices, but improvements are needed on thawing methods, use of kitchen thermometers, keeping heat-treated food hot at above 63 °C, and safe cooling and labeling of leftovers. Structural equation modeling in a variety of ways found that (1) knowledge affects attitudes, (2) knowledge affects practices, and (3) attitudes affect practices—emphasizing the importance of including all three aspects in public health food safety interventions. This study offers useful insights and directions for future research and development of public health programs.