Food Protection Trends - September/October 2020 - 342

11%

Less Than Once A Month

13%
19%

Once A Month

18%
33%

2 To 3 Times A Month

33%
21%

About Once A Week

20%
16%

More Than Once A Week

16%
Post-campaign

Pre-campaign

FIGURE 2. Frequency (%) with which household cooks beef burgers.

month. Responses were similar both pre- and post-campaign.
When asked to describe, in their own words, how they
typically determine when burgers are done (Table 5), the
most common post-campaign reply (ca. 33%, 100 of 305
respondents) was "cut it open," a significant increase from
the pre-campaign reply (ca. 16%, 48 of 305 respondents)
for this method of determining doneness. The next most
common reply (ca. 25%, 76 of 305 respondents) was looking
at the "outside or inside color," a significant decrease from
the pre-campaign reply (ca. 39%, 119 of 305 respondents).
"Use thermometer" and "Juices run clear" at ca. 13% to 16%
were the next most popular responses, with essentially no
differences between the pre- and post-campaign responses
(Table 5) or between those who recalled (n = 73 of 305) and
those who did not recall (n = 233 of 305 respondents) a food
safety advertisement (Table 6). When the total sample was
considered, results did not vary appreciably between preversus post-campaign, with ca. two-thirds of meal preparers
indicating they "never" measure the internal temperature
of a burger with a food thermometer when cooking (Fig.
3). A greater number of post-campaign respondents with
recollection of the "160° is Good" campaign "always" used a
food thermometer to determine if burgers were done (15%),
compared with their counterparts with no recall of this
campaign (11%).
Only 24% (n = 72) of 305 post-campaign respondents
recalled hearing or seeing "160° is Good" beef safety work
products, and only 44% of post-campaign respondents
recalled any advertising related to food safety. Additionally,
11% (n = 12) of post-campaign respondents who recalled
hearing or seeing a beef safety and/or "160° is Good"
advertisement (n = 107) reported purchasing a new

342

Food Protection Trends September/October

food thermometer, and 23% (n = 25) of post-campaign
respondents who recalled hearing or seeing a beef safety and/
or "160° is Good" advertisement (n = 107) had started using
a thermometer when cooking burgers. Of those who recalled
hearing or seeing a beef safety and/or "160° is Good" work
product and who purchased a new food thermometer (n =
12), 75% (n = 9) purchased a digital thermometer, 17% (n =
2) purchased a dial thermometer, and 8% (n = 1) purchased a
glass thermometer. As both a consequence and constraint of
how the survey was structured, we were not able to compare
the self-reported purchasing behavior of those who recalled
the messages disseminated as part of the "160° is Good"
campaign with the behavior of those who did not. That
being said, estimates of thermometer ownership in the U.S.
in 2016 were 67% of the population (n = 2,313), with these
same individuals reporting never using the tool to evaluate
the temperature of beef hamburger patties (18). Those who
recalled a beef safety work product remembered the message
being about "making sure burgers were cooked or done,"
"temperature concerns," and other topics (Table 7). Overall,
very few respondents recalled any of the "160° is Good"
beef safety campaign messaging, and only a slight increase
in thermometer usage could be attributable to the "160° is
Good" campaign.
When asked to rate their overall concern with the safety of
the ground beef they eat, about one-half of respondents, preand post-campaign, gave a rating of 7 or higher, indicating
at least a moderate level of concern (with 37% highly
concerned; 9-10 rating). More specifically, respondents who
rated their level of concern as "4 or higher" pre-campaign (n
= 215) and post-campaign (n = 211), volunteered that these
concerns were often related to bacteria, E. coli, and other
Food Protection Trends - September/October 2020

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