Food Safety Knowledge, Microbiology and Refrigeration Temperatures in Domestic Kitchens on the Island of Ireland

This project involved a survey of the incidence of a range of significant food poisoning
bacteria, including Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Listeria monocytogenes.,
Aeromonas spp. and Escherichia coli 0157, in the domestic refrigerators of households
throughout the island of Ireland. It also incorporated a questionnaire survey to ascertain
consumer food safety practices and knowledge.
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The survey found that certain food poisoning bacteria were commonly present in domestic refrigerators: E. coli (6%), Listeria monocytogenes (6%) and Staphlococcus aureus (41%). The questionnaire revealed that 78% of people did not know that the correct operating temperature for their fridge should be between 1–5°C.
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The findings of this project were used to enhance safefood communication to support
advertising campaigns on fridge hygiene and the use of fridge thermometers. The results
of this survey are available as a report on the safefood website at www.safefoodonline.com.