A study of food safety knowledge, practice and training among food handlers in Ireland

Abstract

Food safety knowledge, practice and training were examined among 689 food workers in Ireland. Parameters such as role, years worked, level of food safety training acquired, and establishment were all found to have a significant effect (p-values <0.01) on knowledge score. It is notable that 28% of all respondents claimed 'never' to have received food safety training, suggesting insufficient compliance with this legislative requirement. Notably, absence of training only accounted for 1% (n=1) of all canteen workers surveyed. In addition, individuals working in canteens were found to have the highest knowledge score (81%) and the highest percentage of level 3 training (60%). Respondents were asked a series of questions relating to operational prerequisite hygiene requirements such as working while unwell, critical limits, food allergens and hand hygiene. This study highlights the value of food safety training and elucidates potential areas for improvement. 1. Introduction Globalisation, coupled with the demand for increased product shelf-life, has led to longer and intrinsically more complex supply chains than ever before (Copenhagen, 2015; Walsh & Leva, 2018). This creates many challenges for the food sector in delivering safe food produce to customers; particularly in light of the current consumer demand for minimally processed food (De Corato, 2019). The global burden of foodborne disease has been reported to be comparable to major infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis; with 1 in 10 individuals falling ill and 420,000 associated fatalities annually (Havelaar et al., 2015; WHO, 2015). In regional terms, European figures suggest that 23 million individuals became ill from foodborne disease, with an estimated 5,000 fatalities, reported in the EU every year (WHO, 2015). Interestingly, 61% of all foodborne outbreaks (including waterborne cases), reported in Europe (EFSA, 2018) and 78% in the USA (CDC, 2018), have been attributed to food from the food service sector. Similarly, approximately 50% of foodborne illness (Bolton, Meally, Blair, McDowell, & Cowan, 2008), has been previously reported to be associated with catering establishments and restaurants in Ireland, respectively. These figures combined with several recent studies documenting insufficient levels of knowledge, negative attitudes and optimistic bias among food handlers (

Hand Hygiene Knowledge and Self-Reported Hand Washing Behaviors among Restaurant Kitchen Chefs in Jiangsu Province, China

“…We found that, in general, restaurant kitchen chefs have higher KSs regarding "Hands should be washed with soap and water or by using hand sanitizer before preparing food" and "Hands should be washed with soap and water or by using hand sanitizer after using the toilet". Similar findings have been reported for restaurant workers in Jordan [21], food workers in Ireland [36], food handlers in food service establishments in the United Arab Emirates [24], and food handlers in restaurants in Kuwait [17]. We also found that the KS for Chinese restaurant kitchen chefs regarding "Hands should be washed with soap and water or by using hand sanitizer after touching used cutlery" (74.8%) was significantly lower.…”

Evaluation of food safety knowledge, attitude, and self-reported practices of trained and newly recruited untrained workers of two baking industries in Dhaka, Bangladesh

“…(2012) , age and experience did not seem to have significant effects on the findings. There are also some studies that have found no significant association of gender and marital status with food safety knowledge of food handlers ( Taha et al., 2020 ; Alqurashi et al., 2019 ; Carbas et al., 2013 ; Gruenfeldova et al., 2019 ; Kunadu et al., 2016 ).…”

“…In the current study, the trained participants were superior in knowledge, attitude, and self-reported practices to the untrained participants. Training has been proved effective in improving food safety and hygiene knowledge in many studies ( McIntyre et al., 2013 ; Gruenfeldova et al., 2019 ; da Cunha et al., 2014 ; Soon et al., 2012 ; Taha et al., 2020 ). However, compared to knowledge and attitude, self-reported practices of trained food handlers seemed a bit weak in this study.…”

“…However, compared to knowledge and attitude, self-reported practices of trained food handlers seemed a bit weak in this study. In addition to training, guidance and supervision are essential for improved practices ( Gruenfeldova et al., 2019 ) as training itself always not associated with practices ( da Cunha et al., 2014 ) . So, for the improvement in the behavior of workers, some behavior-based training would be helpful.…”

An Assessment Of The Food Safety Knowledge And Attitudes Of Food Handlers In Hospitals

“…Contrarily, only a few hospital food handlers correctly indicated thawing in the refrigerator as the best way to safely thaw frozen meat as well as 7 days as the correct maximum duration for which prepared ready-to-eat TCS food prepared in-house could be stored at 5˚C. This can be attributed to the fact that most of the hospital food handlers have not received training on cold storage durations [43][44]. Training programs geared toward food storage temperatures and duration can improve the food safety practice of food handlers [45].…”