Not reheating leftovers until steaming hot throughout

It is important to reheat leftover food until it is steaming hot throughout to kill harmful bacteria that may have grown since the food was cooked(footnote 1). Observations, surveys, and interviews were conducted during the Kitchen Life 2 study to understand behaviours related to reheating leftovers. Reheating leftover foods was only occasionally observed for food business operators (FBOs), occurring on 7% (22) of meal occasions. As such, this chapter focuses on the behaviour in households only. Reheating leftover foods was observed on 14% (144) of meal occasions in households. Over half of reheating occasions were observed to take place for less than 2 minutes (although there is no specific FSA consumer guidance for specific reheating times, the FSA’s advice on reheating states that reheated foods, such as rice and meat, should be steaming hot throughout). To check that food was reheated correctly, in the survey, the majority of households claimed to check if the middle was hot. Just under half of the sample reported that they check if steam is coming off the food (which is part of FSA recommended guidance(footnote 2)). Overall, the factors affecting whether households reheated leftovers until steaming hot were: mixed levels of understanding that leftover food contained bacteria together with low levels of awareness of advice to reheat leftover foods to be steaming hot throughout generally discouraged participants to reheat food safely (Psychological capability). the availability of hobs and microwaves in the kitchen to reheat foods enabled participants to reheat food safely. However, for microwaves, the presence of the door and limited space inside the appliance acted as a barrier to stirring foods while reheating, which may mean foods are not reheated throughout (Physical opportunity). These were reinforced by the following contextual factors(footnote 3): beliefs about how to judge whether food was sufficiently hot and beliefs about the consequences of eating partially reheated leftovers, which acted as both a barrier and enabler of reheating leftovers until steaming hot (Reflective motivation). routines around reheating foods, especially in terms of duration and power settings used in a microwave, which could also act as a barrier or enabler (Automatic motivation).