The household kitchen as the ‘last line of defense’ in the prevention of foodborne illness: A review and analysis of meat and seafood recipes in 30 popular Canadian cookbooks

Abstract Foodborne pathogens account for about 4 million illnesses in Canada annually. Unsafe handling, chilling, cooking and cleaning/sanitation procedures in the household contribute to a significant proportion of these infections. As such, it is important to practice safe food behaviors to prevent incidence of illness and cross-contamination. One way to provide food safety education and guidance to the consumer is through media including magazines, cooking shows, online recipes and cookbooks. Therefore, this study reviewed and analyzed the food safety knowledge of Canadian cooks and chefs by reviewing meat and seafood recipes in Canadian cookbooks published from 2015 to 2017. Of the 30 cookbooks examined, only 19 were included in the study as they focused on meat and seafood. Overall, this study found that cookbooks are not a good source of reliable food safety information or safe food handling practices, and they do not encourage the reader to practice safe food handling during preparation. Furthermore, thermometer use is not encouraged and the majority of recipes (approximately 96%) provided the incorrect temperature or was lacking a minimum internal temperature. Instead, subjective indicators such as a timeframe, colour and/or texture were given to indicate the degree of doneness. In addition, cookbook recipes were deficient in relaying safe preparation, serving and storage instructions. Thus, Canadian cookbooks are not being used effectively for the purposes of informing consumers on safe food handling and preparation techniques, and cannot be relied upon as a reliable source of food safety information. Efforts should be made to educate Canadian chefs (authors of the recipes) on safe food handling practices so that they can promote positive behavior messages conducive to promoting food safety to consumers. As such, currently, cookbook recipes cannot be relied upon as a tool for food safety education. In fact, a number of the cookbooks either lack information on food safety, and/or provide misleading or inaccurate information to consumers.