chefs and catering managers in Ireland knew that food should be
held hot at 63 C and 44% reheated leftovers to above 70 C (Bolton
et al., 2008) and About 74% of food handlers in Spain (Garayoa et al.,
2011) knew that cooked food should not be kept at room temperature
for more than two hours.
Regarding “knowledge of health problems that would affect
food safety” aspect, it is obvious from the answers of food handlers
in the present study that they do not understand food hazards, their
risk and their control. Jevsnik, Hlebec, and Raspor (2008) reported
that food handlers in Slovenia knew health problems that would
affect food safety as more than 90% of the correspondents knew
that they should not handle foods when having diarrhea, cold,
vomiting, and wounds in their hands and about 80% of them
answered that they can handle the food safely when they are upset.
Jianu and Chis¸ (2012) reported that 31% of food handlers inWestern
Romania knew that coughing and/or sneezing is a potential source
of food contamination with S. aureus.
Regarding “knowledge of symptoms of foodborne illnesses”
aspect, several studies have reported knowledge levels for food
handlers similar to those reported in our study.Walker et al. (2003)
and Omemu and Aderoju (2008) reported that 93% food handlers in
small food businesses in UK and street food vendors in Nigeria were
able to identify that diarrhea is the most common symptom of
foodborne illnesses. Similarly,Martins et al. (2012) indicated that 94%
of the food handlers in from an institutional catering company in
Portugal knew the symptoms of foodborne illnesses. Furthermore,
Sun, Wang, and Huang (2012) reported that 98.3% and 80% of night
market food vendors in Taiwan recognized that diarrhea and vomiting,
respectively, as commonsymptoms of foodborne illnesses. Also,
Jianu and Chis¸ (2012)reported that most of food handlers inWestern
Romania (77%) identified vomiting, fever, diarrhea, and abdominal
pain as the most common symptoms of foodborne illnesses.
Regarding “knowledge of important foodborne pathogens”
aspect, similar findings were reported by Santos, Nogueira, Patarata,
and Mayan (2008) who found that 80% of food handlers in Portuguese
school canteens (n ¼ 124) were not able to name any foodborne
pathogens and the remaining 20% knew Salmonella.
Moreover, 28% of the correspondents did not recognize Clostridium
botulinum, C. perfringens, Salmonella, L. monocytogenes, S. aureus,
and E. coli. About 60% recognized Salmonella, and only about 10%
recognized more than one pathogen. Low knowledge level on
foodborne pathogens also was recorded by Jianu and Chis¸ (2012)
who reported that only 25% of food handlers in Western Romania
identified the microorganisms present on poultry carcasses
(Salmonella and C. perfringens). Food handlers in Italy had better
knowledge about foodborne pathogens than those in Jordan. About
49% of Italian food handlers (n ¼ 411) knew the main foodborne
pathogens (Salmonella spp., C. botulinum, S. aureus, Vibrio cholera or
Vibrio spp., Hepatitis A virus), however, only 7.1% of the correspondents
were able to name a food vehicle for each of the five
pathogens (Angelillo, Viggiani, Rizzo, & Bianco, 2000). High
knowledge level on foodborne pathogens was recorded by Bolton
et al. (2008) who indicated that between 70 and 100% of the head
chefs and catering managers in Ireland knew Salmonella (100%),
E. coli O157 (97.5%), L. monocytogenes (84%), S. aureus (78%) and
C. botulinum (71%). However, less than 50% of correspondents knew
of Campylobacter, C. perfringens and B. cereus. Less than 15% of
correspondents knew Yersinia enterocolitica and Shigella. With the
exception of Salmonella and poultry, head chefs and catering
managers reported low knowledge about the association between
particular bacterial pathogens and specific food. Similar observation
was found in our study (data are not shown).
Professional experience of the food workers in the present study
did not affect significantly the mean score of food safety knowledge.
This finding is consistent with that reported by Jianu and Chis¸
Table 9
The association between the experience (<4 or 4 years) and food safety knowledge
score of study population.
Food safety concept Total knowledge mean
score
P-Value*
Experience
(<4 years)
Experience
(4 years)
Personal hygiene 11.2 11.2 0.667
Cross contamination
prevention and sanitation
14.5 14.7 0.379
Safe storage, thawing, cooking
and reheating of the foods
7.6 7.5 0.544
Knowledge of health problems
that would affect food safety
6.0 6.0 0.674
Knowledge of symptoms of
foodborne illnesses
7.4 7.3 0.695
Total score 47.2 47.2 0.896
*P-Value <0.05 is significantly different.
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