TITLE:
Food Items as a Contributor to Paediatric Burns: A Scoping Review
AUTHORS:
Wayne Phillips, Karen Phillips, Josephine Sau Fan Chow
KEYWORDS:
Burn, Classification, Epidemiology, Food, Paediatric, Scald
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Service Science and Management,
Vol.19 No.1,
February
24,
2026
ABSTRACT: Background: Paediatric burn injuries from contact with flame, wet or dry agents, are a global problem with high hospital admission and mortality rates. Cooking is a known risk factor, but it is not known if some foods pose a greater risk of burns in children. The aim of this scoping review is to examine published literature to identify if specific foods posed a greater risk of paediatric burns. Methods: A review of articles was undertaken with the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria of articles published between 2009-2019 and the search was updated to include articles published between 2020-2022. Database were searched for English-language empirical studies conducted in paediatric patients on burn injuries between 2009-2019, followed by a selection process conducted with the project team. Quality appraisal and data extracted were independently assessed by two reviewers, including population characteristics, burn etiology and outcomes. Descriptive statistics were used for burn incidence and t-test for mean difference. Results: Sixteen publications from five continents represent 760,056 children with a mean age of 8.8 years. The reported incidence of burns to scalds was conflicting. Hot water, food viscosity and the cooking method are agents of concern. Conclusion: There is substantial heterogeneity in how the burn injuries are defined and how the data are measured, likely contributing to considerable variability in reported rates. Standardised measures for reporting burn injuries in paediatric are required to improve comparability.