Food stored, prepared, cooked and eaten at home contributes to foodborne disease which, globally, presents a significant public health burden. The aim of the study reported here was to investigate, analyse and interpret domestic kitchen practices in order to provide fresh insight about how the domestic setting might influence food safety. Using current theories of practice meant the research, which drew on qualitative and ethnographic methods, could investigate people and material things in the domestic kitchen setting whilst taking account of people's actions, values, experiences and beliefs. Data from 20 UK households revealed the extent to which kitchens are used for a range of non-food related activities and the ways that foodwork extends beyond the boundaries of the kitchen. The youngest children, the oldest adults and the family pets all had agency in the kitchen, which has implications for preventing foodborne disease. What was observed, filmed and photographed was not a single practice but a series of entangled encounters and actions embedded and repeated, often inconsistently, by the individuals involved. Households derived logics and principles about foodwork that represented rules of thumb about 'how things are done' that included using the senses and experiential knowledge when judging whether food is safe to eat. Overall, food safety was subsumed within the practice of 'being' a household and living everyday life in the kitchen. Current theories of practice are an effective way of understanding foodborne disease and offer a novel approach to exploring food safety in the home.

Understanding everyday social practices is challenging as many are mundane and taken for granted and therefore difficult to articulate or recall. This paper reflects on the challenges encountered in a qualitative study underpinned by current theories of practice that incorporated visual methods. Using this approach meant everyone in a sample of 20 household cases, from children through to adults in their 80s, could show and tell their own stories about domestic kitchen practices. Households co-produced visual data with the research team through kitchen tours, photography, diaries/scrapbooks, informal interviews and recording video footage. The visual data complemented and elaborated on the non-visual data and contradictions could be thoroughly interrogated. A significant challenge was handling the substantial insight revealed about a household through visual methods, in terms of household anonymity. The paper reflects on the challenges of a visual approach and the contribution it can make in an applied sociological study.

This paper examines how the new social contexts experienced by young people after leaving school are related to everyday food practices and eating habits. Findings from in-depth interviews with 31 young people aged 16–24 years studying at a college of further education in South East England are used to explore the role of new social spaces and places and their impact on young people's eating habits and routines. Young people's changing peer groups were related to the re-negotiation of food and eating practices and young people often adopted particular habits when with particular groups of peers. The consumption of alcohol, and feelings about appetite, weight and appearance, were sources of anxiety for some young people, who often felt alone and different to their peers. Young people often voiced a desire to differentiate from the food ethos present in their family home and this was sometimes related to the adoption of a vegetarian diet; some young people, however, reported being nostalgic for the ‘family food’ they ate before making the transition from school. This study shows that food and eating practices are not ordinary, mundane events in young people's lives, but an important part of dealing with the transition to new social contexts.