A Study on the Hygiene Practices of Foodservice Employees by Hygiene Education and Work Environment in the Gyeongnam Area

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examined the hygiene practices of contract foodservice employees and investigated the influence of education and work environment on these hygienes practices. A questionnaire was distributed to 250 con-tract foodservice employees and a total of 232 responses were received and analyzed. The overall score for hygiene practices of contract foodservice employees was 3.89 based on a 5-point scale. Cross-contamination was prominent (highest score at 4.46) and the heating temperature was less prominent (lowest score at 3.49). The factors most affecting contract foodservice employees were their work period, the size of the contract foodservice management company, the number of meals served daily, the frequency of meal service per day and the frequency of hygiene education. Compared to small and medium-sized contract foodservice manage-ment companies, the major contract foodservice management companies showed higher scores for refrigerator/ freezer control (P＜0.001), vegetable/fruit disinfection (P＜0.001), thawing (P＜0.001), heating temperature (P＜0.001), cleaning/disinfection (P＜0.01), and personal hygiene (P＜0.05). The frequency of hygiene education had a significant effect on the performance levels for refrigerator/freezer control (P＜0.001), vegetable/fruit disinfection (P＜0.001), thawing (P＜0.001), heating temperature (P＜0.001), cleaning/disinfection control (P＜0.001), food supply control (P＜0.05), and personal hygiene (P＜0.05). From these results, to increase the sanitation quality of contract foodservice operations, hygiene practice levels need to increase and hygiene edu-cation systematically should be enforced for foodservice employees.