Abstract
The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the length of time between packing and delivery of home-delivered meals, and the extent of foodborne illness risk to the elderly. Procedures to mitigate that risk were also evaluated. Researchers surveyed 95 drivers from home-delivered meal preparation sites in six states across the United States to determine the average length of time that passed during packing, loading, leaving, and delivery. The efficiency of various risk mitigation methods were evaluated and used to adjust the actual delivery time. Total average delivery time from packing to last delivery was 1.92 hours. This study suggests that the risk associated with the actual 1.92 hours of total delivery time could be mitigated to represent approximately 1.55 hours of effective time with proper packing and holding conditions. This methodology proposes a single measure for evaluating the effectiveness of various handling procedures associated with distributing home-delivered meals, which can be utilized to evaluate overall risk when combined with in-house preparation and client-handling behaviors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 316-320 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Journal of the American Dietetic Association |
| Volume | 107 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 2007 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This article is based upon work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, US Department of Agriculture, under Award No. 2001-51110-11461.