Purpose food handlers have an important role in transmitting pathogens from raw materials to cooked ones. This study was conducted to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of 95 food handlers on five keys to safer food based on World Health Organization questionnaires in semi-industrial catering in a government office in Tehran. Materials and methods specialists reviewed the validity of questionnaires and reliability was measured using determination of inter rater agreement, relevancy and clarity of each question, and the tool as a whole was evaluated by the content validity method. The Cronbach’s alpha and repeatability were measured with intra-cluster correlation through repeated test-piloting after one month. Results In spite of good levels of KAP, lack of knowledge was observed in some items such as cooking thoroughly and keeping food at safe temperatures. All of the participants had good knowledge about washing hands (100% correct answers) and Low level of knowledge with 46.3% correct answers belonged to put cooked meat at room temperature question; in attitude section, 99% of the food handlers were regarded a positive attitude about the cleaning of surface in the kitchen to reduces the risk of illness; a worrying issue is 57% of participants agreed that by looking at foods can distinguish safe and spoiled ones finally 100% of the respondents were considered to have good behavior. Significant relations were found between knowledge and attitude ( p < 0.001) and between attitude and practice ( p = 0.001). Conclusions Educational training and creating motivation to promote knowledge and turning it into practice seem necessary.

Melamine is an organic-based chemical material widely used in the production of tableware. Given the adverse effects of melamine on human health, melamine tableware can be a source for its introduction into the human body. The aim of this study was to use a simple method for monitoring the rate of melamine migration from the tableware to food and the effect of time and tableware on this migration. To measure the migration, spectrophotometry was used. The limit of detection (LOD) of the method was 0.2 (μg/ml), which is functional for measuring the rate of migration. The investigation of sample migration of melamine tableware revealed that migration has occurred across all samples. The rate of migration in all samples was less than the standard level of the European Union (30 μg/ml). Statistical analysis indicated that time is an important factor in melamine migration, which significantly increased (p<0.05) in 93% of cases with lengthening the contact time from 30 minutes to 90 minutes. The type of tableware (new or old) and production conditions (standard or non-standard) were found to significantly affect (p<0.001) the rate of migration. Statistical analysis of the results suggested that old tableware increased melamine migration in 41% of cases (p<0.05). Non-standard tableware significantly (p<0.001) increased the rate of migration and thus the effect of non-standard production on melamine tableware was more significant than the age of the tableware.

Melamine is an organic-based chemical usually found as enriched white nitrogen crystals. Since melamine is used for manufacturing food dishes and containers, there are concerns about melamine migration from the dishes into foods and subsequently the human body, particularly in children. As there are no routine techniques to measure melamine migration in food quality control laboratories in Iran, we here aimed to validate HPLC and spectrophotometry methods to measure migration of this substance. The HPLC and spectrophotometry techniques were adopted and validated. The level of melamine migration was measured in melamine ware of five brands in Iran market. Distilled water and acetic acid 3% were used as simulants. The dishes were in contact with the simulants for 90 min at 90 °C.The accuracy and precision were obtained as 94.9 and 95.3% for HPLC and 95.3% and 96.2% for spectrophotometry, respectively. Furthermore, the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were obtained as 145 and 435 ng/ml for HPLC, and 200 and 605 ng/ml for spectrophotometry, respectively. Our results indicated that HPLC can be a reliable method to measure low-level melamine. The spectrophotometry could also be applied as a feasible, accurate, and cost-effective method for measuring melamine in foodstuffs. This research has tried to adopt a method to measure melamine migration in the regions where there are no routine techniques to measure melamine migration the same as Iranian food laboratories. The validation results of HPLC and spectrophotometry methods showed 94.9% accuracy and 95.3% precision and 95.3 and 96.2% for spectrophotometry respectively which were reliable. HPLC can be a reliable method to measure low-level melamine. The spectrophotometry could also be applied as a feasible, accurate, and cost-effective method for measuring melamine in foodstuffs.

Improper use of chemical fertilizer and pesticide poses not only threats to the environmental safety but also major public health issues globally. The adverse effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides forced agricultural scientist to look for safer methods such as organic farming. This study was aimed at assessing the knowledge and tendency towards organic foods use among people of living in a megacity, Tehran. Data was collected from “fall exhibition” and “health food exhibition” participants using pretested questionnaire. Data were entered, cleaned and analyzed by SPSS version 17. T-test, ANOVA and Regression analysis were carried out and the association was considered significant at p-value less than 0.05. A total of 400 respondents participated in the study, making a response rate of 100%. There were reverse relation between knowledge and accessibility and positive relation between trust, marriage and gender and no relation with price. Building trust in consumer, and allocation of a special label, known logos and ways to track most of the products sold as organic foods seems necessary for increasing consumption.

Nowadays, Melamine- containers is widely use to because of heat- resistant. Due to the effects of Melamine- on human health, constant and long-term usage of Melamine- containers can be a source of Melamine- exposure to human body. The objective of this research was to measure the levels of Melamine- migration from Melamine- ware-products into foods at different test conditions and Effect of food type and Time on it. Spectrophotometer UV/VIS method was used to detect the limits of Melamine- and the method was based on the in the complex of Melamine- formaldehyde and Uranin (a ketone group).The limit of detection (LOD) of the method was 0.2 (µg/ml) which is functional for measuring. Migration was less than the standard level of European Union (30 µg/ml). In this study, 3% acetic acid, distilled water and 15% ethanol were used as simulants. The results showed the temperature is an important factor in Melamine- migration and in 97% of cases, with increasing temperature from 30 to 90 there is a significant increase (P < 0.05) in Melamine- migration furthermore migration from acidic simulants was more than alcoholic and neutral ones (p < 0.001).