College students need help with food safety and hygiene, researchers say

A recent survey of college students shows that many lack know-how about safely handling raw food.

Researchers in the United Kingdom surveyed nearly 3,000 undergraduates. They found that 33% don’t always wash their hands after handling raw meat, fish or poultry, and 54% don’t always wash their hands after touching frozen chicken.

More than half of the students (54%) said they sometimes wash raw chicken – one of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 10 dangerous food safety mistakes. Approximately 65% reported that their refrigerators contain food past the “use by” date. And 37% said they had picked food out of the waste area of a supermarket or another food establishment. 

Findings also show that many students don’t keep shared kitchens clean.

The Food Standards Agency, which published the preliminary results of the survey online, has guides to help students with food hygiene and use-by/best-before dates.