Some 60 per cent of households on the island of Ireland engage in at least one risky kitchen practice that can lead to increased incidences of food-related illness, a major study of food consumption and safety has found.
It found that nearly one-third of homes dangerously stored raw meat above cooked meat.
The findings, to be presented at a conference in University College Dublin (UCD) today, found that a fifth did not keep eggs chilled, and 12 per cent had food past its use-by date.
Prof Jim Phelan, of the agri-food and environment sector at UCD, said fridge storage methods were risky in over 40 per cent of homes, and over half engaged in one or more poor hygiene practices in the rest of the kitchen.
"These included not using different chopping boards for meat and vegetables, feeding pets in the kitchen and poor defrosting methods."
The study identified a significant difference between knowledge and behaviour; people are aware of the issues but changing practices is proving difficult.
"Interestingly, knowledge of food risks was better in the North but behaviour was worse than in the South. Rural areas showed worse behaviour than urban areas. There was also socio-economic differences, with the lower and upper groups both having worse practices than the middle group," said Prof Phelan.
"The lower group is probably explained due to poorer kitchen facilities and less knowledge. We are suggesting that increased risky food practices by the upper socio-economic group are due to bigger, over-stocked fridges and more meals eaten outside of the home, leading to poor positioning of food, lack of covers and poor control over product use-by dates." The three-year study between UCD, the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise and Queen's University, Belfast, was funded by Safefood and involved primary school children in 78 schools North and South.
The children completed a food diary, sketched the position of foods in the fridge and recorded food use-by dates.
The report found differences between the diets of children North and South, with the North's children having a less balanced diet. "We suspect that food policy is having an effect here; many schools in the South ban snack foods," said Prof Phelan.
The outcome of the study will be discussed at a conference in UCD today attended by health service, Government, industry and education representatives.
Safefood is a food safety promotion board set up under the terms of the Belfast Agreement on December 2nd, 1999.