Donelan, Amy K.2015-10-122015-10-122015-12-01http://hdl.handle.net/2097/20477Understanding how consumers handle poultry can highlight gaps in consumer knowledge and practice of food safety. Quantitative research provides only a partial image, whereas qualitative data is helpful in gaining a complete picture of a shopper's behaviors. The objective of this study was to determine what poultry product microbes could potentially be transferred during purchasing and home storage; using a shop-along observational technique to observe actual shopping, transporting, and storing behavior of consumers with raw poultry products. In 71% (n=97) of the situations observed there was no visible hand sanitizer or wipes in the meat section of the grocery store. Plastic bags could be found in the meat section 85% (n=97) of the time, which only 25% of shoppers (n=82) used the bag for their poultry products. During transportation, the consumer bagged the poultry separately from other products in 71% of the observations. A majority of shoppers (59%) stored poultry without using a plastic bag or other container. Overall, there needs to be an increase in food safety education on the handling of poultry during purchasing, transporting, and storage.en-US© the author. This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/PoultryFood safetyConsumerShop- alongThesisBehavioral Sciences (0602)Food Science (0359)