Food Safety and Older Adults: Perceptions of Barriers to Adopting Safer Food-Handling and Consumption Patterns

Despite their vulnerability to infection from foodborne pathogens, older adults engage in unsafe food-handling practices. There is a need to understand older adults’ food-handling practices in the context of high-risk foods consumed frequently as well as what might motivate older adults to adopt safer food handling behaviors. A validated food safety survey was administered to a nationwide sample of older adults across the United States. Respondents (1,552) reported consuming potentially hazardous foods including, runny yolk eggs (12.6%), deli meats (25.5%), bagged salad greens (35.5%) and poultry parts (34.4%) more than once a week; however, many did not follow food safety guidelines related to these foods. Of food safety behaviors surveyed, older adults were most receptive to using a food thermometer (90.6%) for all types of poultry and throwing away deli meats within 3-5 days (87.5%). Older adults were not as receptive to avoiding deli meats (68.8%), heating deli meats to steaming hot (62.2%), not eating runny yolk eggs (80.3%) or to avoiding washing poultry (76.7%). Health practitioners and those developing food-safety education interventions should be aware of the disparity between recommended and actual food handling practices and perceived barriers to adopting safe food- handling practices.