‘have you seen the state of their..?’: kitchen hygiene, farm biosecurity and the need for good...
TRANSCRIPT
‘Have you seen the state of their..?’: kitchen hygiene, farm
biosecurity and the need for good quality social scientific research
Anne Murcott
Special Professor University of Nottingham
‘have you seen the state of their...’
fridge
trays of pig swill
baby’s feeding bottle
microwave oven
‘have you seen the state of their...’
path between the turkey
shed and processing plant
café’s kitchen sink
milking parlour...
‘have you seen the state of their...’
house officer’s tie
operating theatre B
the floor in the corner of the
ward...
kitchen hygiene, farm biosecurity
visible and invisible dirt
cleanliness and contamination
microbiology, toxicology
hygiene, safety, biosecurity
H591, E. Sakazakii, C. diff.
purity and pollution
all amenable to some form of social
scientific investigation
kitchen hygiene, farm biosecurity
just a thought...
isn’t there a gap?
the need for good quality social scientific research
not simply ‘data needs’, also need for social scientific imagination & new research by:-
(a) using all kinds of sources as spurs to imaginative thought
(b) going beyond conventional wisdoms to complicate common sense understandings
(c) building on existing research – including beyond food
spurs to imaginative thought...
'Death and squalor' filmed at foot and mouth farmMartin WainwrightThe Guardian Thursday May 9, 2002
Takeaway cutlery and plastic wrapping were found in a piggery's trays of swill which had supposedly been heated almost to boiling point for two hours, a court heard yesterday.
Graphic footage of the debris, piped to pens from a central processor at the farm where foot and mouth was first found last year, was shown to the trial at Bedlington magistrates court in Northumberland.
spurs to imaginative thought...
Slap-dash errors and shoddy behaviour by staff at the Bernard Matthews factory at the centre of the bird flu outbreak have been criticised by two official inquiries. The reports by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, come exactly a fortnight to the day when the potentially lethal strain of H5N1 virus was confirmed in a turkey shed on the company's farm at Holton.
Eastern Daily Press February 17 2007
spurs to imaginative thought...
Ruth Watkins, Clinical Virologist, interviewed by Robin Lustig ‘World Tonight’ BBC Radio 4 Feb 12 2007
Raised question about workers’ standards of hygiene and associated practices such as shoe cleaning, washing that are aimed at biosecurity
BBC Radio Radio 4 Home
SynopsisEddie is relief milking at Brookfield and is very happy in
his work. He puts Ruth’s mind at rest – he’s up to speed on all their procedures and paying attention to the hygiene routines. Ruth joins him for a while.
(emphasis added)
spurs to imaginative thought...
‘It was very clear that the term non-sterile carries with it very strong negative associations and these included: dirty, unclean, contaminated, bacteria, germs, not sealed, infections, getting sick or ill, unsafe and “likely to be” more than “potentially harmful”’ p.37
COI & FSA (2006) Powdered Infant Formula Qualitative Research http://www.food.gov.uk/science/surveys/infantformula
going beyond conventional wisdoms
complicating common sense understandings“explore parents and health care professionals
understanding of the term non-sterile” (absent apostrophes in the original)
market research work provides list of synonyms occurring in focus groups
their conclusion serves as social scientist’s (eg social anthropologist, sociologist, psychologist) starting point
going beyond conventional wisdoms
nature of lay theories of cleanliness/dirt
routine everyday practicesany variation under varying circumstances (visiting infant,
care of very elderly, adult with compromised immune system)
generational differences
mixed methods – participant observation, CCTV/still photography, interviewing, inventories of cleaning materials/purchase, attitude measurement
NB Martens in Cox & Campkin (eds) 2007
deficiencies of the ‘deficit model’
studying people’s food safety behaviour in the home
compares findings on kitchen practices with ideal activities which would keep cross contamination to a minimum
conclusion comments on the ‘unfortunate’ extent to which people fail to measure up to those ideals
deficiencies of the ‘deficit model’
studying practices and attitudes to herd management
compares herdsmen and women’s responses with professional veterinary viewpoints
a poor fit is deplored, finding the former wanting
deficiencies of the ‘deficit model’
conclusions are value judgements – report writing versions of ‘have you seen the state of their...?’
horror, regret, disappointment etc may be understandable reactions but they are no substitute for adequate social scientific analyses and conclusions.
building on existing research – including beyond food
...beliefs and practices affecting the safety of food itself are remarkably under-researched
chapter on beliefs & practices about food and health
Mennell, Murcott & van Otterloo 1992:47
building on existing research – including beyond food
kitchen practices – domestic and commercial
cleaning practices – house, personal, laundry
conceptions of clean/dirty, use of implements (sharing toothbrushes, cloths cleaning floor & then table, washing between handling raw meat & preparing salad)
STS – lay (public) understandings of science
sociology of health & illness
building on existing research – including beyond food
turkey farm workers’ hygiene, shoe cleaning etc
under what circumstances are corners normally cut, how is work organised, incentives/disincentives, surveillance procedures, employee turnover
studying farm work as work – sociology of work & occupations, industrial sociology (Theo Nichols)
normal deviance: speeding, small scale pilfering from employer/shoplifting/smuggling – criminology
kitchen hygiene, farm biosecurity
just a thought...
isn’t there a gap?
are agencies failing to benefit from decent social
scientific research?
are social scientists missing funding
opportunities?
acknowledgements
grateful thanks to Brigitte Nerlich and Nelya Koteyko at University of Nottingham and Lydia Martens of Keele University for providing copies of their work
Clostridium difficile
methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus