Food safety is an important public health issue in the U.S. Eating at restaurants and other food service facilities increasingly has been associated with food borne disease outbreaks. Food safety training and certification of food mangers has been used as a method for reducing food safety violations at food service facilities. However, the literature is inconclusive about the effectiveness of such training programs for improving food safety and protecting consumer health. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of food manger training on reducing food safety violations. We examined food inspection reports from the Toledo/Lucas County Health Department (Ohio) from March 2005 through February 2006 and compared food hygiene violations between food service facilities with certified and without certified food managers. We also examined the impact on food safety of a food service facility being part of a larger group of facilities.Restaurants with trained and certified food managers had significantly fewer critical food safety violations but more non-critical violations than restaurants without certified personnel. Institutional food service facilities had significantly fewer violations than restaurants, and the number of violations did not differ as a function of certification. Similarly, restaurants with many outlets had significantly fewer violations than restaurants with fewer outlets, and training was not associated with lower numbers of violations from restaurants with many outlets. The value of having certified personnel was only observed in independent restaurants and those with few branches. This information may be useful in indicating where food safety problems are most likely to occur. Furthermore, we recommend that those characteristics of institutional and chain restaurants that result in fewer violations should be identified in future research, and efforts made to apply this knowledge at the level of individual restaurants.
Analytical methods to determine oil and grease concentration and identify specific organic fractions in water and wastewater are reviewed. Important aspects of the development of these procedures are extraction technique, solvent type, and identification and quantification methods for the extracted material. The material presented will assist researchers and regulatory investigators in selecting appropriate analytical procedures and interpreting results.
Tetrachloroethylene has been detected in concentrations ranging from a few micrograms per litre to several milligrams per litre in dead ends of water distribution systems made of vinyl‐toluene‐lined asbestos–cement pipe. About 1600 km (1000 mi) of this lined pipe is being used, primarily in New England. Tetrachloroethylene concentrations can be lessened by flushing and installing continuous bleeders, two of the solutions being suggested to correct this organics problem, which resulted from steps to control corrosion of asbestos–cement pipe.
Physicochemical and microbiological analyses were performed on influent and effluent samples taken from Garvey Reservoir (Los Angeles County, Calif.). Data collected on particle counts and size distributions, total plate count, coliform bacteria, algal counts, chlorophyll, turbidity, copper, and iron were analyzed with a computerized statistical package. The quality of the influent was degraded through biological activity in the reservoir to produce a lower‐quality effluent. Results indicated that algae were associated with increased turbidity and particulate levels and might enhance or support bacterial activity, including physical protection of bacteria against the effects of chlorination.
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