Identification of barriers to consumers adopting the practice of not washing raw poultry

Abstract

Washing raw poultry, a food handling practice that increases the risk of cross contamination, continues to be practiced despite educational campaigns communicating the correct behavior to not wash raw poultry. The purpose of this research was to conduct a qualitative analysis of consumer comments on websites that were in response to an education campaign informing consumers to not wash raw poultry. A total of 4338 comments were collected from 50 websites identified using three different search engines. Comments were divided into categories including comments that agreed with the education message and comments that disagreed with the education message. Thematic analysis was conducted on the comments to identify common themes in each category. Themes identified indicated that there are two groups of consumers that agree with the education message: consumers who never previously washed raw poultry and consumers who changed their behavior because of the education message. Barriers identified among comments that disagreed with the education message included consumers feeling the need to wash raw poultry to remove materials such as blood, slime and fecal matter. Additional barriers identified included the belief that washing raw poultry with water containing acids such as vinegar or lemon can kill bacteria, and consumers believing that the method they use to wash raw poultry will not result in cross contamination. These results can inform future research and efforts to educate consumers to not wash raw poultry.