Wheat flour and baking mix have been associated with foodborne outbreaks and recalls, yet many consumers are unaware of the repercussions of consuming raw flour products. The objective of this study was to evaluate the accessibility of flour safety messages on commercially available packages and to identify consumer barriers to processing these messages. Eye-tracking technology was used to track the eye movements of 47 participants to assess their time to fixation (TTF) on the flour safety messages on 10 commercial packages. Notifications that were longer than one sentence were considered “long” messages, while notifications that consisted of only one sentence were considered short (S1–S5 and L1–L5). Only two participants (4.3%) found messages on all 10 packages. Highly accessible messages did not result in a high preference of presentation among participants. Most of the participants (98%) found the message on the S4 package, which correlated with the lowest TTF of 7.08 s. However, only 15% of those who found the S4 message chose it as their preferred message. Many participants who were interviewed said that they preferred messages that identified the reasoning for the warnings. They also preferred the messages that were well separated from other content on the package. Flour safety messages on the current packages are not effective to convey information and change consumer behavior. More science-based messaging strategies need to be developed to provide guidance for flour safety communication.

Recurrent foodborne outbreaks associated with low-moisture foods prompted this study to evaluate apple-handling practices presented in apple-drying recipes available to United States consumers, and to explore the food safety implications of the recipes. Because little research is available on the safety of home fruit-drying, we conducted a systematic search of English-language apple-drying recipes from YouTube videos, blog articles, cookbooks, and university extension sources. Our evaluation found that most recipes excluded handwashing instructions, and potential cross-contamination practices were evident in 12% of the videos. Bruised or damaged apples were selected for drying in 16% of the videos, two blogs, and five cookbook recipes. Although more than half the blogs and videos demonstrated pre-treatment procedures, they did so predominantly to minimize browning with almost no mention of antimicrobial benefits. Drying temperature information was missing in 41% of the videos and 35% of the cookbooks that we evaluated. Even when temperatures were mentioned, most were insufficient for pathogen reduction according to the recommendations of previous studies. These videos, blogs, and cookbooks commonly advocated subjective indicators instead of unit measurements when slicing apples and checking for doneness. Our findings reveal the need for drastic improvements in food safety information dissemination to home apple-dryers and recipe developers.