Paper 11.2 Kitchen Life 2 Working Group - Update (July 2023)

Summary

This paper provides an update on progress for the Kitchen Life 2 Working Group.  It summarises the background and key activities.  This paper is for information and discussion.

Background

Kitchen Life 2 (KL2) is a large project undertaken by Social Science to better understand actual kitchen behaviours, both commercial and domestic. The project is being conducted by a consortium led by Basis Social in partnership with Leeds University, Analytical People and Life Stream (formerly Big Sofa Technologies). At the ACSS meeting in October 2020, the possible value of a working group to steer the Social Science ‘Kitchen Life 2’ project was discussed. Due to the novel methods of the project, it was agreed that this project would benefit from a working group model, facilitating their input into various stages of the project. The ACSS KL2 Working Group (WG) was convened and sits within the broader project advisory group convened by the research team, consisting of experts from other areas, including Microbiology.

The overall objective of the ‘Kitchen Life 2’ project is to inform the FSA’s understanding of food hygiene practices in domestic and commercial kitchens in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, enabling us to better inform our risk assessment, management and communication and our broader policy. The aim of the study is to identify (a) the key behaviours relating to food safety that occur in domestic and business conditions; where, when, how often and with whom they occur; (b) influences on those behaviours that would need to change if the behaviours were to change.

Due to the Kitchen Life 2 project coming to a close, and the planned publication of project outputs in September 2023, the Kitchen Life 2 Working Group will soon come to its natural endpoint. The Working Group has been greatly beneficial in assuring quality, providing useful input at key milestones and using their vast academic expertise to shape the final outputs.

Members

The Kitchen Life 2 Working Group (KL2WG) is comprised of the following members:

·     Professor Julie Barnett (chair)

·     Ms Julie Hill

·     Dr Hannah Lambie-Mumford

·     Professor Fiona Gillison

Terms of reference

The Terms of Reference for the KL2WG were updated in May 2022. The agreed objectives are:

To sit within the Advisory Group (convened by research agency, consisting of KL2WG members as well as experts from other areas, including Microbiology).

To provide input at the following key points for each phase of the research:

• A workshop to discuss emerging findings from literature review and shape the study design. This was held in April 2021.
• A review session held after the data collection phase (Originally planned for April 2022 but occurred in November 2022) to inform thinking around behavioural interventions and discuss the focus and the structure of the report. This session was held as a ‘behavioural interventions workshop’, where representatives from a range of organisations supported the FSA and Basis in thinking about the research findings. A separate discussion took place with the ACSS working group in July 2022 to discuss initial plans for reporting and outputs.
•  A review session to discuss KL2 draft reports.

To provide input separate from the Advisory Group in an ad hoc capacity supporting areas of the project such: Ethics procedure, Dashboard proforma, Dashboard draft, Consent forms and Secondary analysis ideas.

Key activities to date

Since its inception the working group has undertaken the following tasks:

• Set out the terms of reference and established the group’s method of working alongside the wider project advisory group.
• Contributed to the tender evaluation panel which took place on the 6th January 2021 to assess the bids for the project. The panel included working group members Hannah Lambie-Mumford and Julie Barnett.
• Provided feedback and comment on the project literature review.
• Provided comments on the ethical challenges of the study and supporting the team in drafting sound consent forms.
• Inputted in key areas of the project e.g., input on what questions they would use the dashboard for and how the dashboard can best be structured.
• Reviewed the quality assurance processes for each stage of the project
• Prioritisation of secondary analysis ideas and input in interview questions around sustainability.
• Reviewed and commented on the draft reporting plans
• Participated in a behavioural intervention workshop
• Reviewed and comment on the final outputs in Spring 2023

Current and future activities

Due to the Kitchen Life 2 project coming to a close, and the planned publication of project outputs in September 2023, the Kitchen Life 2 Working Group will soon come to its natural endpoint. The Working Group has been greatly beneficial in assuring quality, providing useful input at key milestones and using their vast academic expertise to shape the final outputs.

The secretariat, KL2 Working Group members and FSA leads will reflect and assess the impact, value and efficiency of the group’s activity on the KL2 project as a whole.

Julie Barnett, ACSS Kitchen Life 2 Working Group Chair Helen Heard, Anya Mohideen, Abbie Collins, FSA