A survey of food hygiene and safety training in the retail and catering industry

Abstract

Describes a survey of food safety training for staff in the retail, care and catering industry. Training provisions were evaluated against the guidance in the relevant industry guides. Additional information was collected on the managers' perceptions of and attitudes towards hygiene training. The extent and level of training of the retail butchers, who had to comply with the licensing regulations, was better than care homes and caterers of an equivalent size. Some of the care homes were not compliant with the training requirements of the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations. There was a similar lack of hygiene management systems in most of the catering businesses in this study but senior staff were better trained and were able to provide in-house training to greater effect. All the businesses carried out on-the-job training, although in some this was restricted to induction training, the content of which was often ill defined. There was a lack of documented hygiene procedures, reinforcement strategies and very little refresher training activity. Many managers failed to provide feedback on performance, to test hygiene knowledge or praise good hygienic performance. Half of the managers were not trained to train, and often were untrained in elementary hygiene themselves. Some managers recognised that conditions in the workplace and time pressures could contribute to poor hygiene performances.

Food hygiene training in small to medium-sized care settings

“…This is of particular concern as many care settings prepare food for vulnerable groups, such as children or the elderly. Worsfold, (1996) also found that some nursery staff, including nursery nurses, did not have formal food hygiene training. The 'Industry Guide to Good Hygiene Practice ' (JHIC, 1997) recommends that level 1 food hygiene training (equivalent to a basic or foundation accredited course), is provided to food handlers within three months of employment.…”

“…Studies (Howes et al, 1996;Powell et al, 1997), however, have indicated that increased knowledge may not result in desired changes in food handling behaviour. Worsfold (1996) found that the standards of food handling practices in day nurseries were high, despite some kitchen and nursery assistants having no formal food hygiene training. However, there is a lack of literature discussing the provision of food hygiene training to food handlers in care settings.…”

“…Sprenger, 1999; MacAuslan, 2001;Worsfold and Griffith, 2003;Seaman and Eves, 2006), but very few articles (e.g. Worsfold, 1996) specifically relate to food hygiene training / education of care setting workers.…”

“…Sprenger, 1999;MacAuslan, 2001;Worsfold and Griffith, 2003;Seaman and Eves, 2006), but very few articles (e.g. Worsfold, 1996) specifically relate to food hygiene training / education of care setting workers. 'Care setting' represents premises such as children's nurseries, day-care settings, pre-schools, respite units, and residential homes.…”

Popular Ethnic Foods in the United States: A Historical and Safety Perspective

“…The positive impact of training in the food service business is supported by previous studies. Using research conducted from 1998 to 2000, researchers found that untrained staff was cited 100 times as contributing to food poisoning outbreaks (Worsfold and Griffith 2003). Howes and others (1996) noted that 97% of foodborne illness in food service establishments was due to inadequately trained staff.…”