Evaluation of Food Safety Information Provision in Meal kit Recipes: A Pilot Study

Meal-kit subscription boxes enable consumers to receive pre-measured ingredients delivered straight to the front door. The meal-kit includes a step-by step recipe card for the consumer to prepare a specific meal within the domestic kitchen.

The trend of home cooking, and opting for meal-kit services, is expected to continue beyond the pandemic. Given the association of the domestic kitchen with the sporadic incidence of foodborne illness, this current consumer trend presents unique food-safety challenges, offering distinctive opportunities to inform and enable consumers to implement recommended food-safety practices to reduce the risk of foodborne illness associated with food prepared in the home. The food-safety practices evaluated in this study are all essential aspects of food preparation as it helps to eliminate and reduce the spread of harmful bacteria and lower the risk of foodborne illness.

Data suggests that the inclusion of food-safety information in recipes improves consumer food-safety practices. Consequently, there is a need to review and evaluate recipe cards provided in meal-kit subscription boxes to determine the inclusion of food-safety information.