Food hygiene in hospitals: evaluating food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of foodservice staff and prerequisite programs in Riyadh's hospitals, Saudi Arabia

[摘要] In global terms, Saudi Arabia is a rapidly developing country. As such, its food industries have yet to fully implement the food safety management systems common in the EU. In the hospitals sector, the Ministry of Health intends to implement Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) system to provide safe meals for patients, staff and hospital visitors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the readiness of the Saudi Arabian hospitals to implement HACCP by assessing the pre-requisites programmes in their foodservices departments. An audit form was used in four hospitals in Riyadh. Questionnaires were also used to assess self-reported behaviour, knowledge and attitudes of 300 foodservices staff. Lack of training was known to be a major omission in the pre-requisite programs (PRP’s) of all hospitals. Therefore a bespoke food safety training program was developed and delivered to food handlers in the participating hospitals. An assessment was then made to determine whether this intervention had any effect on their knowledge, attitude to food safety and self-reported behaviour. The results show that, the prerequisite programs were not implemented properly in the participating hospitals. Also, foodservices staff had a poor knowledge with regard to food safety. However, staff knowledge was significantly improved following the training (p. value < 0.05) and their level of knowledge remained stable after six months. Participants’ behaviours and attitudes also improved after the training. This indicates that, training has a positive impact on food handlers knowledge, practices and attitude.

[发布机构] University:University of Birmingham;Department:School of Chemical Engineering

[关键词] R Medicine;RA Public aspects of medicine;RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine