Master of Science / Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Kevin R. Roberts / Many pathogenic microorganisms are spread by contaminated hands and may lead to foodborne illness. The use of hand sanitizers can significantly reduce bacterial contamination and is an efficient and inexpensive method to prevent infections and sickness. Previous researchers have found that the routine use of hand sanitizers allowed the U.S. Army to significantly reduce illness. However, few studies have been conducted within a U.S. Army dining facility, which is considered to be one of the primary sources of foodborne illness within the U.S. Army. Therefore, using the Theory of Planned Behavior, the purpose of this study was to identify the behavioral intention, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of control of using hand sanitizer among military personnel. The study targeted soldiers using a written survey during their lunch hour on the U.S. Army base at Fort Riley, KS. A total of 201 surveys were collected. All data were screened and entered into IBM SPSS for analysis. Results indicated that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control explained 64% of the variance in behavioral intention. Attitude and subjective norms were found to be significant predictors of behavioral intention, with attitude being the strongest predictor. In general, behavioral beliefs were positive among soldiers. Related to normative beliefs, soldiers did perceive negative social pressure from other soldiers not to use hand sanitizers. Analysis of control beliefs found soldiers perceived hand sanitizers were readily available, but disliked their smell and feel after application. Food production managers and Army commanders can use these results to implement hand sanitation behavioral interventions within military dining environments. Practical implications will likely translate to reduced healthcare costs, decreased absenteeism rates, and improved mission readiness. Some of the limitations include commonly perceived social psychology bias. Further, clustered samples were collected within one military installation in a relatively short amount of time.

Inledning: Salladsbarer är ett trendigt och lättillgängligt måltidsalternativ som finns i de flesta dagligvaruhandelsbutiker. Personal och konsumenter hanterar dagligen livsmedel och utrustning vid salladsbaren. Det saknas idag information och kunskap om hur personers beteende kring en salladsbar kan påverka livsmedelssäkerheten. Syfte: Undersöka risker med offentlig livsmedelshantering vid en salladsbar. Metod: Dolda observationer av personal och konsumenters riskbeteende. Hygienkontroll av portionsförpackningar. Bakterieprovtagningar av ytor i anknytning till salladsbaren följt av en artbestämning. Studiens intention är att ge en kvalitativ bild av de hygienutmaningar som livsmedelshantering i en offentlig miljö kan innebära. Resultat/Slutsats: Resultatet av observationerna visar att det sker ett flertal olika riskbeteende i anknytning till salladsbaren, framför allt bland konsumenter, vilket kan leda till korskontamination. Hygienkontrollen visade att medelvärdet av samtliga portionsförpackningar låg inom gränsvärdet för godkänd hygienstandard. Analysen av bakterieprover tagna från olika ytor kopplade till salladsbaren visade att det förekommer en hög variation av olika bakterier. Det finns en risk för bakteriespridning genom personers riskbeteende kopplade till salladsbaren. Risker kan förebyggas genom ökad kunskap och information om hygien och normer för beteende kring salladsbarer. / Introduction: Salad bars are a trendy and easily accessible meal option available in most grocery stores. Staff and consumers handle food and equipment at the salad bar daily. There is today no information and knowledge about how people's behavior around a salad bar can affect food safety. Purpose: To investigate risks with public food management at a salad bar. Method: Hidden observations of staff and consumer risk behavior. Hygiene control of portion packages. Bacterial sampling of surfaces associated with the salad bar followed by a species determination. The aim of the study is to provide a qualitative picture of the hygiene challenges that food management in a public environment may imply. Result/Conclusion: The results of the observations show that there are a variety of risk behaviors associated with the salad bar, especially among consumers, which can lead to cross contamination. The hygiene check showed that the average of all portion packages was within the limit of approved hygiene standards. The analysis of bacterial samples taken from different surfaces linked to the salad bar showed that there was a high variety of different bacteria. There is a risk of bacterial spread through people's risk behavior linked to the salad bar. Risks can be prevented through increased knowledge and information on hygiene and norms around salad bars.

Master of Science / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Kevin R. Roberts / The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that one in six Americans become ill,128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die each year due to foodborne illness. Children are at a higher risk of acquiring foodborne illness than adults for several reasons, including: an immune system that has yet to fully develop, limiting their ability to fight infections; a lack of control over the food they consume because their meals are usually provided by others; and the lack of awareness of food safety risks. Thus, it is critical to ensure that childcare center employees practice safe food handling. The purpose of this study was to explore the food safety knowledge, practices, and barriers to safe food handling practices of childcare center employees. Observations were conducted in 10 childcare centers in Manhattan, Kansas. Each childcare center was observed for two days during lunch preparation and service. Observations of foodservice employees were conducted in the kitchen using a structured observation form. Teacher observations were conducted in the classroom using detailed notes. A questionnaire was used to collect demographic, food safety training, and food safety knowledge information. SPSS (v. 20.0) was used to analyze data. Childcare center employees had high average scores on the safety knowledge assessment. The majority of employees received some type of food safety training. Time pressures, availability of equipment, and small food preparation space were found as the main barriers to implementing safe food handling. Childcare center foodservice workers and teachers were knowledgeable about handwashing and time/temperature control, but failed to utilize on the job. Results of this study will help childcare educators to develop materials to improve food safety practices and encourage owners/managers of childcare centers to enhance their food safety behaviors.

Restaurant managers complete certification in food safety in order to ensure that food is handled and prepared in a manner that decreases risk factors associated with food-borne illness. However, the literature has been inconclusive concerning the connection between manager certification and the incidence of critical food-safety violations. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the presence or absence of a certified food safety manager (CFSM) and the number of risk factors cited on food inspection reports and the food safety score. In addition, this study was designed to determine whether operation type (i.e., chain vs. independently owned) has an impact on the number of risk factors and food safety score. This study was an analysis of 2013 data from 1,547 restaurants in North, Central, and South Georgia health districts using a 2-tailed independent-sample t test. Restaurants with a CFSM had significantly more risk factors cited on food safety inspections and lower food safety scores than restaurants without a CFSM. There was also a significant difference among chain and independent restaurants. Chain restaurants had fewer risk factors cited on restaurant inspections and had higher food safety scores. In the epidemiological triangle model, breaking the chain of transmission disrupts the link among agent, host, and environment. Thus, CFSMs have the responsibility to implement food safety training programs to break the chain of transmission by identifying and correcting unsafe food practices among food workers. This study has the potential to assist managers in understanding the importance of food safety and implementing food safety training programs that decrease risk factors associated with food-borne illness. Further research is needed to explore the effectiveness of manager certification in reducing critical violations.

New Zealand faces a range of food safety hazards. Microbial hazards alone were estimated to cause over 2,000 years of lost healthy life in 2011 (Cressey, 2012) and $62m in medical costs and lost productivity in 2009 (Gadiel & Abelson, 2010). Chemical hazards are thought to be well managed through existing controls (Vannoort & Thomson, 2009) whereas microbial hazards are considered harder to control, primarily due to their ability to reproduce along the food production chain. Microbial hazards are thought to cause the majority of acute foodborne gastroenteritis. This research reviewed food safety literature and official documentation, and conducted 55 interviews, mostly with food safety experts from different stakeholder groups, to examine the food safety decision-making environment in New Zealand. This research explores the concept of the ‘stakeholder’ in the context of food safety decision-making and proposes an inclusive ‘stakeholder’ definition as any group which is able to affect, or be affected by, the decision-making process. Utilising this definition, and guided by interviews, New Zealand stakeholders in food safety decision-making were identified and classified as follows: •Regulators •Public health authorities •Food safety scientists/academics •Consumers •Māori •Food Businesses (further classified as): o Farmers o Processors o Food retailers o Exporters Interviews with stakeholders from these groups highlighted twelve criteria as being relevant to multiple groups during food safety intervention evaluation: •Effectiveness •Financial cost •Market Access •Consumer Perceptions •Ease of Implementation •Quality or Suitability •Quality of Science •Equity of Costs •Equity of Benefits •Workplace Safety •Cultural Impact •Animal Welfare There are a number of different ways to measure or assess performance on these criteria. Some are able to be quantitatively measured, while others may require the use of value judgements. This thesis used the Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) metric for quantifying effectiveness during the testing of different MCDA models. This thesis reviews the MCDA process and the food safety specific MCDA literature. There are different ways of conducting MCDA. In particular, there are a large number of models available for the aggregation phase; the process of converting model inputs, in the form of criteria scores and weights, into model recommendations. This thesis has described and reviewed the main classes of model. The literature review and interview process guided the construction and testing of three classes of MCDA model; the Weighted Sum, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and PROMETHEE models. These models were selected due to their having different characteristics and degrees of complexity, as well as their popularity in the food safety and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) literature. Models were tested on the problem of selecting the most appropriate intervention to address the historic Campylobacter in poultry problem in New Zealand during the mid-2000s. Experimentation was conducted on these models to explore how different configurations utilise data and produce model outputs. This experimentation included: •Varying the format of input data •Exploring the effects of including/excluding criteria •Methods for sensitivity analysis •Exploring how data inputs and outputs can be elicited and presented using visual tools • Creating and using hybrid MCDA models The results of this testing are a key output of this thesis and provide insight into how such models might be used in food safety decision-making. The conclusions reached throughout this research phase can be classified into one of two broad groups: •Those relating to MCDA as a holistic process/methodology for decision-making •Those relating to the specific models and mathematical procedures for generating numerical inputs and outputs This thesis demonstrates that food-safety decision-making is a true multi-criteria, multi-stakeholder problem. The different stakeholders in food-safety decision-making do not always agree on the value and importance of the attributes used to evaluate competing intervention schemes. MCDA is well suited to cope with such complexity as it provides a structured methodology for the systematic and explicit identification, recording and aggregation of qualitative and quantitative information, gathered from a number of different sources, with the output able to serve as a basis for decision-making. The MCDA models studied in this thesis range from models that are simple and quick to construct and use, to more time consuming models with sophisticated algorithms. The type of model used for MCDA, the way these models are configured and the way inputs are generated or elicited can have a significant impact on the results of an analysis. This thesis has identified a number of key methodological considerations for those looking to employ one of the many available MCDA models. These considerations include: •Whether a model can accommodate the type and format of input data •The desired degree of compensation between criteria (i.e. full, partial or no compensation) •Whether the goal of an analysis is the identification of a ‘best’ option(s), or the facilitation of discussion, and communication of data •The degree of transparency required from a model and whether an easily understood audit trail is desired/required •The desired output of a model (e.g. complete or partial ranking). This thesis has also identified a number of practical considerations when selecting which model to use in food safety decision-making. These include: •The amount of time and energy required of stakeholders in the generation of data inputs (elicitation burden) •The degree of training required for participants •How data inputs are to be elicited and aggregated in different group decision-making environments •The availability of MCDA software for assisting an analysis Considering the above points will assist users in selecting a suitable MCDA model that meets their requirements and constraints. This thesis provides original and practical knowledge to assist groups or individuals looking to employ MCDA in the context of food-safety intervention decision-making. This research could also serve as a guide for those looking to evaluate a different selection of MCDA models.

Submitted by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2018-05-17T14:30:07Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertacao_Rosemeri_Feijó.pdf: 1542995 bytes, checksum: 6e932435071d8dcda014760c79bc799e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2018-05-17T14:52:17Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertacao_Rosemeri_Feijó.pdf: 1542995 bytes, checksum: 6e932435071d8dcda014760c79bc799e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2018-05-17T14:52:23Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertacao_Rosemeri_Feijó.pdf: 1542995 bytes, checksum: 6e932435071d8dcda014760c79bc799e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-17T14:52:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertacao_Rosemeri_Feijó.pdf: 1542995 bytes, checksum: 6e932435071d8dcda014760c79bc799e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-05-22 / Sem bolsa / A cantina é um dos locais, dentro da escola, onde são realizadas as refeições e adquiridos os alimentos pelos alunos para seu consumo. Este local deve proporcionar bem estar e oferecer uma alimentação adequada, tanto em qualidade nutricional como em qualidade higiênico-sanitária. Neste sentido, a importância deste estudo consiste em conhecer as cantinas das escolas da cidade de Pelotas/RS, com o principal objetivo de caracterizá-las quanto aos tipos de alimentos produzidos e comercializados, assim como quanto às suas condições higiênico-sanitárias. O estudo foi transversal, do tipo censo, realizado entre os meses de abril e setembro de 2014, em 87 escolas e 26 cantinas da cidade. Foram aplicados os seguintes instrumentos: Questionário de caracterização da escola, Questionário de caracterização da cantina, Check list de oferta e publicidade de alimentos e Lista para a verificação das boas práticas de fabricação. Foi realizada coleta de água de ponto localizado dentro da área de manipulação de cada cantina, sendo realizada dosagem de cloro e análise microbiológica para detecção de coliformes totais e Escherichia coli. Como resultados importantes foram verificados a baixa interferência na produção e comercialização de alimentos pela comunidade na cantina escolar, poucos locais com Alvará Sanitário e nutricionista, proprietários sem capacitação em manipulação de alimentos, elevada frequência de comercialização de alimentos não saudáveis, adequação às condições higiênico-sanitárias da maioria das cantinas, porém com alguns itens insatisfatórios como instalações físicas, manejo de resíduos, manipulador, documentação e registro. Para melhorar as condições do serviço prestado e assegurar a qualidade nutricional e sanitária dos alimentos produzidos e comercializados nas cantinas são necessárias ações educativas que envolvam toda comunidade escolar. / The canteen is one of the places within the school, where they are made meals and foods purchased by students for their consumption. This place should provide well-being and provide adequate food, both in nutritional quality as in sanitary conditions. In this regard, the importance of this study is to understand the canteens of schools in the city of Pelotas / RS, with the main objective to characterize them as to the types of produced and marketed food, as well as to their sanitary conditions. The study was cross-sectional, the type census, held between April and September 2014 in 87 schools and 26 canteens in the city. The following instruments were applied: school characterization questionnaire, canteen characterization questionnaire, offering Checklist and advertising of foods and list for verification of good manufacturing practices. Point of water collection was held located within the area of handling each canteen, being held chlorine dosing and microbiological analysis to detect total coliforms and Escherichia coli. As important results have been verified to low interference in the production and marketing community for food in the school canteen, few places with Sanitary Permit and nutritionist, unskilled owners in food handling, high frequency marketing of unhealthy foods, adaptation to hygienic conditions health of most canteens, but with some unsatisfactory items as physical facilities, waste management, handler, documentation and registration. To improve the service conditions and ensure the nutritional and sanitary quality of food produced and sold in the canteens are required educational activities involving the whole school community.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), people throughout the world become sick every year from consuming contaminated foods, which impacts countries’ socioeconomic development, straining their healthcare system, travel and tourism, and foreign trade markets. To help alleviate the impact foodborne illness (FBI) has on society, scholars suggest physicians incorporate food safety in their standard work practice. The purpose of this study was to determine if Harlem Hospital physicians utilized food safety knowledge in comprehensive patient care with a diagnosis of FBI, in addition to how physicians passed this food safety information onto the patient. A qualitative methodology using an interpretive description approach was used to determine 52 physicians' utilization of food safety accompanied by Slotnick four-stage theory of physician’s learning as the study’s theoretical foundation. The study found that Harlem Hospital medicine and ICU physicians were more knowledgeable in FBI than other hospital physicians, and even though physicians’ definitions of FBI were different, all physicians' answers corresponded with the behaviors of clean, separate cook and chill. The research concludes Harlem Hospital physicians know how to diagnose and treat patients with FBI, and physicians acquired their knowledge of food safety through multiple resources. The study also found the physicians do not always include food safety in comprehensive patient care. However, all physicians agreed patients should be educated in food safety to prevent its reoccurrence. When physicians provide education at the bedside, this may help increase patient awareness in food safety, reducing hospital readmission rates, leading to a positive social change.

Two studies were conducted to investigate potential factors that affect consumers' perception towards home meal kits, and potential foodborne illness risks factors of home meal kits usage. <div>In study 1, a cross-sectional data collection was performed by using an online, self-administrated questionnaire. The participants who were the adults residing in U.S. were asked to answer the survey using the Likert scales. Multiple linear regression and moderation analyses were conducted to determine the associations between variables. The differences between HMK users and non-users were assessed by an independent t-test.</div><div>In study 2, three studies were developed to investigate the risks factors, including the (1) analysis of the available food safety-related information and delivery protocol collected from the vendors’ websites, (2) examination of the actual commercial HMK shipments, and (3) examination of the temperature changes inside the insulated HMK packages held under the average summer temperatures over time. Potential risk factors retrieved from the three studies were analyzed and the suggested guidelines to control those risks were identified.</div>

No description available.

In the diploma thesis I was dealing with the issue of food safety in the Czech Republic and labeling of meat products. In the practical part were carried out two surveys, public opinion poll and survey of proper labeling of meat products. Opinion polls were attended by 462 consumers and analysis of proper labelling was subjected to 489 meat products in select retail chains in Prague. Survey results of labeling of meat products were not very positive, but can be expected to improve, as well as enhancing food safety.