Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Each year in Canada, an estimated 4 million cases of foodborne illness result in approximately 11,600 hospitalizations and 240 deaths. To address this, current information on Canadians' food handling practices is essential to support evidence-based communication, food safety messaging, and policymaking. The objective of this study is to describe national consumer food handling behaviours and identify knowledge gaps related to food safety practices. Data were obtained from the Foodbook 2.0 survey, conducted by the Public Health Agency of Canada between 2023 and 2024. Analysis was performed on this nationally representative dataset, with demographic disaggregation to identify high-risk groups and determine the prevalence of unsafe food handling practices. Overall, 15,271 respondents completed the food safety module in Foodbook 2.0, with the highest response rate from older adults aged 60-74 (n=5,877). Some safe food handling gaps were identified. About 30.0% (95%CI: 29.9-31.0) of respondents rinsed meat or poultry before cooking it "all of the time", with 25.0% (CI: 24.1-26.1) of respondents sometimes engaging in this practice. This behaviour was more commonly reported among older age groups (36.6%, CI: 34.8-38.4) for 60-74 year olds and 40.8%, CI: 37.9-43.9 for 75+ year olds) compared to younger age groups (26.2%, CI: 18.9-35.2 for 14-17 year olds, 21.6%, CI: 18.0-25.8 for 18-29 year olds and 28.3%, CI: 26.5-30.1 for 30-59 year olds). Those in the oldest age group (75+ years old) were also least likely to consider themselves at risk compared to other age groups (54.4%, CI: 51.3-57.5 vs. 33.5-46.5%). These findings highlight the continued importance for targeted food safety education, particularly safe handling of raw meat and poultry and risk perceptions of foodborne illness of older adults. These results indicate how messaging could be tailored to the older adult population to support the health and well-being of Canada's aging population.