In 1989, a severe form of diarrhea in African American infants in Georgia, caused by the bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica (YE), was first associated with home preparation of chitterlings. Each subsequent November and December, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clinics offered flyers and short lectures that emphasized hand washing and protecting children from exposure to chitterlings. However, data collected at one hospital in 1996 showed that annual winter peaks of cases continued despite the WIC-based intervention. Strong cultural traditions surround the preparation of chitterlings, with holiday preparation recipes passed down through the generations. A potential barrier to changing chitterlings preparation behavior was the fear that boiling would “boil in.
