Food safety practices in a teaching hospital in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The concept of food safety becomes critical when the food is prepared and served to hospitalized patients. This study was carried out to assess the knowledge and practices related to food safety and personal hygiene among food handlers in one of the teaching hospitals in Sri Lanka. An interviewer-administrated questionnaire, observations and discussions were used to gather information. All 31 members in food service management system included and out of them 52% were male and 48% were female. Their mean age was 42.6 years (range 21-59) and 52% of them had secondary education (6-11). The results showed that inadequate knowledge of food hygiene practices; 54.8% of workers did not know the correct refrigerator temperature; 51.6% of them thought that chilling or freezing eliminates harmful germs from food; 19.4% responded that fresh milk does not need refrigeration for its storage; 38.7% did not know that prepared food stored without covering can result in contamination. However, 80.6% knew that raw food should be separated from cooked food. The knowledge of workers regarding personnel hygiene was good: all workers responded that washing hands after using toilet is important. The observations revealed availability of two separate tiled floor rooms for the storage of raw materials; a separate place for cutting and washing; a tiled clean kitchen floor; and all workers had trimmed clean nails and short hair. However, there were some drawbacks on their food safety practices: keeping vegetables on the floor during raw material inspection; keeping cooked food containing utensils open prior to distribution; and unavailability of uniforms, gloves and masks for food handlers. Since, the workers’ knowledge of food safety aspects and the available safety practices were inadequate, it is important to improve their knowledge by education and training programs on food safety and hygiene to provide safe food for patients.