Hygiene in the home kitchen: Changes in behaviour and impact of key microbiological hazard control measures

This review first examines the societal evolutions which may impact negatively on food safety at home as well as the knowledge and perceptions of consumers with respect to food hygiene. In its second section, this paper gives a general overview of measures to control microbiological hazards in the domestic kitchen and their effectiveness. The measures described are those that aim to (i) decrease cross contaminations, (ii) hinder microbial growth (storage temperature), (iii) decrease microbial load (cooking, cleaning of hand, dishes, dish cloths, sponges, towels, equipment and utensil surfaces). The necessity to clean hands is unanimously recognized but for other measures this is not the case and they therefore deserve to be further studied to establish the most relevant recommendations for consumers. Some views on how to communicate these recommendations to consumers are presented, which make it possible to conclude that improvements could to be obtained through motivating the youngest consumers.