Food Safety and Hygiene in Dorm

Kitchens
Ruby Davis

Goal and Context

The original goal of this research was to gain insight into the central research question: how we
can support students to engage in safer cooking practices in University of Washington dorm
kitchens? The field research I conducted revealed that students may share some unhygienic
practices while washing their hands, preparing their food, and disposing of waste. For these
interviews, my specific goal was to validate these observations from my field study and gain
more insight into students’ motivations for these behaviors.

My three interview participants for this research were all University of Washington students with
significant experience cooking in West Campus dorms. Interviewee 1 was an English major with
experience cooking in the communal dorm kitchen in Alder Hall at least twice a week.
Interviewee 2 was a Human Centered Design and Engineering major living in Mercer Court who
had experience cooking in a shared kitchen space at least once a week and had past
experience cooking in Terry Hall’s communal kitchen. Interviewee 3 was a Biology major with
experience cooking in both Alder Hall and Terry Hall.

Interviews two and three were carried out in my home, while the second interview was
completed on UW campus. I asked interviewees several primary and follow up questions while
taking notes and recording the audio of the interview.

Research Questions
1. Why might students engage in risky cooking behaviors? What kind of risky behaviors do
they engage in? What precautions do they take, if any?
2. To what extent are students aware of safe cooking practices?
3. How experienced are students in the kitchen? How familiar are they with preparing the
foods they typically create?
4. How do students handle waste? What factors affect how they handle waste?
5. What kind of cleaning and food handling occurs before, during, and after cooking?
6. What pain points may be preventing students from engaging in safer cooking behaviors?
Results and Recommendations

Fire Alarms

Result
Interviewees experienced and heard about frequent serious fire hazards while living in UW
dorms. These hazards had a multitude of potential causes.

Proof
Interviewee 1 reported a high degree of expertise in relation to ovens in UW dorms and had
personally experienced fire alarms being set off from the kitchen area. They cited a serious
oven issue where residue at the bottom of the oven would frequently smoke and set off Alder
Hall’s fire alarm. Interviewee 1 was adamant that this issue was not the students’ fault, but
students were blamed for fire alarms being set off and even incurred abuse for their perceived
role in the situation. Even after students repeatedly attempted to contact HFS about the problem
with the oven, nothing was done. Interviewee 3 expressed some similar experiences to
Interviewee 1; she claimed to have set off the fire alarm in Alder Hall, and cited a combination of
inexperience in the kitchen as well as some inherent fault with the oven itself.

All three interviewees noted the high sensitivity of fire alarms. Interviewees reported alarms
being set off at least once a week during certain parts of the year, an issue they found
frustrating as well as concerning. Interviewee 2 and 3 heard of students incorrectly microwaving
food as a frequent cause of fire alarms in Terry Hall; Interviewee 3 had heard of students
microwaving instant ramen without water setting off alarms multiple times. All three interviewees
explained that a fear of setting off an alarm was a major stressor while cooking in UW kitchens,
and Interviewee 2 even cited this fear as a reason for her infrequent use of UW kitchens during
her time living in Terry Hall.

Recommendation
A thorough investigation should be done into the causes of fire alarms being triggered in UW
dorms. If the results of my interviews are corroborated, HFS should send maintenance workers
to run more frequent checks of dorm ovens, especially after frequent fire alarms. At the
beginning of the school year, RAs should give students an overview of basic fire safety in the
kitchen.
Awareness of Cooking Safety Practices

Result
Students expressed a some awareness for important cooking safety practices, such as knife
safety, contamination risk, and hand washing techniques, but could not always remember the
exact protocol. Not all students acted on their awareness of safe cooking practices.

Proof
Interviewee 1 and 3 both had food handler’s cards and had completed the online food handler’s
card test, but experienced information overload while taking the test and reported little memory
of the correct practices they had learned. That said, the test did provide them an awareness of
the existence of certain correct practices in certain circumstances. Interviewees 1 and 3 had
clear knowledge of knife safety that they practiced regularly, though using the correct knife for a
particular task and knife sharpening were both cited as things only done while interacting with
food at work. All three interviewees shared an awareness of the correct methods of washing
one’s hands, though Interviewee 1 and 2 reported some leniency when cooking in their place of
residence. When cooking meat, all interviewees expressed knowledge of the importance of
proper preparation, handling, and storage of meat products. Interviewee 1 and 3 explained
proper chicken cooking techniques that they adamantly followed. All interviewees expressed
understanding of the importance of not using the same knife to cut meat and other food
products, though Interviewee 1 claimed to do so anyway. Interviewee 3 also explained that their
concern for food contamination was stronger when at work than at home. Overall, both
Interviewee 1 and 3 engaged in risky cooking practices at home while being in full awareness of
the riskiness of those practices.

Recommendation
An online quiz is not enough to adequately educate students about food safety, though it does
increase awareness of the existence of correct practices. In addition to an online quiz, students
could take a practical cooking test at the beginning of the year to increase their knowledge of
safe cooking practices.

Ameateur Cooking Skills

Results
Despite clear proficiencies in some areas, students were quick to deprecate their own cooking
skills and emphasized the simplicity of the meals they cooked.
Proof
None of the interviewees referred to themselves as skilled cooks, though Interviewee 2 called
herself confident in the kitchen. Interviewee 2 cited laziness as a key factor that prevented her
from making what she considered to be “real” meals, though she listed a number of dishes she
prepared on a regular basis. Both Interviewee 1 and 3 claimed a lack of experience when
cooking certain meat products, but neither reported having actually served dangerous food, and
both explained clear awareness of proper meat preparation. Interviewee 1 seemed to describe
their frequent correct cooking of meat as miraculous. Both Interviewee 1 and 3 reported stress
over incorrectly preparing or serving meat. In regards to fire safety, Interviewee 3 stated that
being better cooks would have reduced the risk of fire hazards. Both Interviewee 1 and 2 used
“being a college student” as a reason for lack of skill, confidence, or ambitious cooking activities,
even though both interviewees shared a high degree of proficiency baking and preparing
complex foods.

Recommendation
To increase confidence in cooking and to validate students’ cooking skills, students could be
provided with cooking classes in dorms where they could ask questions and have their skills
evaluated by more knowledgeable chefs. It’s important to help college students understand that
good cooking skills and being a college student are not mutually exclusive.

Reasons for rankings

I ranked fire alarm safety first because the issue is pressing, potentially dangerous, and affects
a large number of students—both kitchen users and non-kitchen users. It has a high impact. I
ranked awareness of cooking safety next because although interviewees expressed knowledge
of many basic and important cooking skills, they often lacked knowledge of the specifics, which
can pose safety hazards to themselves, though not necessarily many other students in the
dorms. I ranked cooking skills last because although it does have strong impact on the ability of
students to prepare food correctly and peer educate, the risk is not as great or as widespread as
the previous two key findings. Students’ lack of confidence in their own skills may put a
roadblock in future learning but is not an imminent risk.

Next Steps
For the upcoming survey, I’d like to explore more reasons behind the frequent fire alarms in
dorm environments and students feelings about these situations. Although I did not intend to
look so closely into fire alarms when I began my interviews, the passionate interviewee
responses and the concerning information I collected has made me interested in the issue. I
think that fire alarms and fire safety poses a great risk to students living in dorms, and it seems
like the issue may be more complex than simple student cooking errors. I’d like to see if what I
found in interviews is accurate across the larger body of dorm residents. In addition, I’d like to
gauge student awareness of the food safety practices identified by my interview participants, as
well as kitchen competency. These interview results were surprising to me, and I’d like to
compare quantifiable results from the overall population.

Reflection
The next time I complete user interviews, I will need to practice staying closer to my interview
questions script. Although I do think that I was able to ask a lot of valuable follow up questions
during my interview that revealed information I would not have otherwise been able to uncover, I
also think that some of my questions allowed the participants to go off on tangents that were
only partially related to my research topic. I was surprised by my ability to keep the interview
going. I initially thought I would struggle to keep the interviews at around thirty minutes each, but
surprisingly, my interview time average was just over 30 minutes.
Appendices

Appendix 1: Questions and Protocol

Protocol

I allowed participants to select their interview location. Interviews 1 and 3 took place at my own
home, because I was very familiar with the participants and my home was the most convenient
location for these interviews. The second interview took place on campus in one of the
communal dorm spaces of the interviewee’s residence hall.

With permission, I recorded the audio of each of the interviews and transcribed them after the
interview was complete. In addition, I took typed notes of key points or nonverbal actions during
the interviews.

Questions

1. C​an you describe the last time you used the dorm kitchen?
a. How often do you use the dorm kitchen?
b. What factors affect how often you cook in dorm kitchens?
c. What kinds of foods do you typically make in dorm kitchens? Why?
2. Do you do anything to prepare before cooking a meal?
a. What do you do to prepare?
b. How do you handle food before cooking a meal?
c. What does your cooking space look like before cooking a meal?
d. How conscious of food safety are you before starting to cook?
e. Have you ever had a food handlers license?
f. What do you know about food safety?
3. Do you take any hygiene or safety precautions while cooking?
a. What kind of precautions? Why?
b. How important is food safety to you?
4. Are you ever concerned with hand washing if you’re cooking in the kitchen?
a. Why? Why not?
b. When do you wash your hands?
c. How often do you wash your hands?
d. Do you wash your hands before cooking? After cooking? While cooking?
e. Can you walk me through the way you wash your hands?
f. Are there any circumstances in which you would want to wash your hands, or
make sure you washed your hands?
5. Have you ever seen or experienced something that caused you to change your behavior
while cooking in dorm kitchens?
a. Why did you change your behavior?
 b. Do you think your experience was common?
6. How do you handle any waste produced while cooking?
a. Do you sort waste? Recycle, compost?
b. Walk me through the waste disposal process.
c. Do you ever cook eggs? What do you do with something like eggshells? Walk me
through that process.
7. What do you do when you’re finished cooking?
a. What do you do with any dirty utensils or dishes?
b. Can you walk me through how you clean your dirty equipment?
c. What about the kitchen space?
Appendix 2: Interview Notes
[Redacted to preserve interviewee privacy.]
Appendix 3: Images of Data Analysis