The influence of disgust sensitivity on self-reported food hygiene behaviour

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between people's food disgust sensitivity and their food hygiene behaviour. We asked 1066 participants in Switzerland to complete an online survey. They provided information on how often they performed certain hygiene behaviours, how likely they would be to eat different food items after they had passed their expiration dates, and, using a specific scenario, how they would decide whether milk was safe to drink after they forgot to put it in the refrigerator overnight. We found that food disgust sensitivity was a significant predictor of participants' edibility assessments and their reported frequencies of hygiene behaviour after controlling for age and sex. Our data suggested that food disgust was a strong predictor of food safety behaviour in the domestic kitchen. Learning more about people's behaviour is crucial for the successful design of interventions to improve hygiene behaviour and the prevention of foodborne diseases.