Consumer Research
This page indexes research reports related to FSIS' food safety education programs and consumer behavior.
Meal Preparation Experiment on Breakfast
This report describes the methods and presents the results from a meal preparation study related to cooking breakfast (shell eggs, raw pork breakfast sausage, and fruit salad) conducted as part of the Food Safety Consumer Research Project. The breakfast study is the last of five iterations of a meal preparation experiment in which consumers were observed while preparing meat and poultry products regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Meal Preparation Experiment on Grilling
This study includes results from the fourth iteration of the meal preparation study (2020-2021), which examined consumers grilling sausage and hamburgers on an indoor grill. The study measured consumers’ adherence to recommended food safety practices (such as using a food thermometer, handwashing, and preventing cross-contamination) between participants who received an educational intervention and those who did not.
Modernizing Safe Handling and Ready-to-Eat/Not-Ready-to-Eat Labeling Instructions
FSIS conducted research to measure consumers’ attention and adherence to labeling on meat and poultry products while preparing a meal. This report describes the results of that research, which were being used to evaluate the effectiveness of the Safe Handling Instructions label (SHI).
Meal Preparation Experiment Related to Not-Ready-To-Eat Frozen Foods
The third iteration of FSIS’ meal preparation observational studies examined participants’ use of a food thermometer to check the doneness of raw stuffed chicken breasts and also examined the effectiveness of a related educational intervention about using a food thermometer to check the doneness of not-ready-to-eat (NRTE) frozen foods.
Meal Preparation Experiment Related to Poultry Washing
FSIS and its research partners conducted meal preparation studies to evaluate consumer food handling behaviors in a test kitchen. This report describes the results of the second iteration of the meal preparation experiment that examined consumers’ washing of poultry when preparing a meal of chicken thighs.
Web-based Survey on Food Safety Behaviors
The first iteration of FSIS’ web-based survey of U.S. adults collected information on a variety of topics, including consumer use and satisfaction with the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline, awareness of and response to food recalls, awareness of and understanding of foodborne illness outbreaks, and food safety behaviors related to grilling and serving food buffet style.
Meal Preparation Experiment Related to Thermometer Use
FSIS and its research partners conducted meal preparation studies to evaluate consumer food handling behaviors in a test kitchen. This initial report is on the first phase of a multi-year study that also includes focus groups and web surveys. This report describes the results of the first iteration of the meal preparation study that examined consumers’ use of food thermometers when cooking ground turkey patties.
An Observational Study of Thermometer Use by Consumers When Preparing Ground Turkey Patties (Jul 1, 2020; Journal of Food Protection, Volume 83, Issue 7.): The results of this research were published in this article in the Journal of Food Protection.
Food Safety Consumer Research Literature Review Report
A systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature on consumer-focused public health campaigns. This research provides insight into consumers’ diverse food safety needs, along with the messaging and accompanying materials needed to improve consumers’ food safety behavior.
USDA Resources
- USDA Economic Research Service: Food Safety
- National Agricultural Library Food Safety Research Information Office (FSRIO)
Intergovernmental Resources and Other Partners
- Consumer Research on Foodborne Illness, Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
- Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN), Food and Drug Administration and the University of Maryland
