Risk Analysis, Vol. 27, No. 4, 2007 DOI: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2007.00944.x Food Safety in the Domestic Environment: An Interdisciplinary Investigation of Microbial Hazards During Food Preparation Arnout R. H. Fischer, 1* Aarieke E. I. De Jong, 1,2,3 Esther D. Van Asselt, 1,2,4 Rob De Jonge, 2 Lynn J. Frewer, 1 and Maarten J. Nauta, 2 It has been established that, to a considerable extent, the domestic hygiene practices adopted by consumers can result in a greater or lesser microbial load in prepared meals. In the research presented here, an interdisciplinary study is reported in which interviews, observations of con- sumers preparing a recipe, and microbial contamination of the finished meals were compared. The results suggest that, while most consumers are knowledgeable about the importance of cross-contamination and heating in preventing the occurrence of foodborne illness, this knowl- edge is not necessarily translated into behavior. The adoption of habitual cooking practices may also be important. Potentially risky behaviors were, indeed, observed in the domestic food preparation environment. Eighteen of the participants made errors in food preparation that could potentially result in cross-contamination, and seven participants allowed raw meat juices to come in contact with the final meal. Using a tracer microorganism the log reduction as a result of consumer preparation was estimated at an average of log 4.1 cfu/salad. When combining these findings, it was found that cross-contamination errors were a good predictor for log reduction. Procedural food safety knowledge (i.e., knowledge proffered after general open questions) was a better predictor of efficacious bacterial reduction than declarative food safety knowledge (i.e., knowledge proffered after formal questioning). This suggests that mo- tivation to prepare safe food was a better indicator of actual behavior than knowledge about food safety per se. KEY WORDS: Consumer behavior; food; food microbiology 1 Wageningen University, Marketing and Consumer Behaviour Group, Wageningen, The Netherlands. 2 Laboratory of Zoonoses and Environmental Microbiology, Cen- tre of Infectious Disease Control Netherlands, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands. 3 Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (VWA), Amster- dam, The Netherlands. 4 RIKILT, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wagenin- gen, The Netherlands. ∗ Address correspondence to Arnout R. H. Fischer Hollandseweg1, 6706 KN, Wageningen, The Netherlands; tel: +31-317-483053; fax: +31-317-484361; arnout.fischer@wur.nl. 1. INTRODUCTION Despite considerable theoretical and practical ad- vances in food safety management, food-induced ill- nesses still represent an important threat to public health. Indeed, food safety objectives now emphasize the role of consumer behavior in promoting consumer protection, increasing responsibility of the consumer in engaging in self-protective behavior (Codex Ali- mentaris Committee, 2004). As a consequence, food safety objectives are now being set at the moment of consumption rather than at the moment of purchase (WHO/FAO, 2004). 1065 0272-4332/07/0100-1065$22.00/1 C  2007 Society for Risk Analysis