Book chapter
Retail Food Safety Risks for Populations of Different Races, Ethnicities, and Income Levels
Retail Food Safety, pp 177-190
05 Sep 2014
Abstract
Low socioeconomic (SES) and minority populations are less likely to have access to supermarkets but more likely to have access to small grocery and convenience stores. This phenomenon, also known as a “food desert” is believed to contribute to poor quality diets in these populations because of lack of access to fresh, healthy food choices. Small, independent grocery and convenience stores available to these populations may face a number of barriers to safe food handling and sanitation. These barriers include infrastructure, transportation, language, and employee knowledge and turnover. Limited data indicates that markets in census tracts characterized by low SES and minority populations are more likely to have at least one Critical Code Violation per inspection. Recent research has also found that produce available in the food desert environment may be of poorer microbial quality than what is available to higher SES populations. Additionally, minority and low SES populations may be more likely to experience improperly held eggs and milk of poorer microbial quality. One retrospective study linked purchasing of food at convenience and small markets to be associated with cases of listeriosis. It has also been reported that consumers of minority ethnic and racial background are more likely to purchase meat from live-bird and animal slaughter markets and this practice has been associated with multiple outbreaks of salmonellosis. In light of public health efforts to increase the consumption of fresh, healthy foods among low SES and minority populations there is a need to better understand the barriers to food safety and sanitation that both retailers and consumers in the food desert might experience.
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Details
- Title
- Retail Food Safety Risks for Populations of Different Races, Ethnicities, and Income Levels
- Creators
- Jennifer J. Quinlan - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Retail Food Safety, pp 177-190
- Series
- Food Microbiology and Food Safety
- Publisher
- Springer New York; New York, NY
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Nutrition Sciences
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85028663236
- Other Identifier
- 991019173877804721