Food-borne illnesses are common among people who eat food at restaurants. Most common reason of food-borne illness is cross contamination which occurs due to lack of food safety knowledge among food handlers of restaurants. Food hygiene is the set of fundamental standards utilized in an organized control of the environmental surroundings at the time of manufacturing, packaging, consignment/passage, storage, processing, preparation, selling and serving of food in such a way as to guarantee that food is intact to utilize and is of satisfying storing characteristics.
Therefore, there is need to evaluate their food safety knowledge and provide relevant training. There is lack of food safety knowledge among food handlers associated with restaurants. This study was designed to evaluate before and after training food safety knowledge of food handlers working in various restaurants in Lahore district. Nine restaurants each from nine towns of Lahore were selected. A minimum of two food handlers from each restaurant were further being selected. A total of 180 food handlers were put to pre-and post-training evaluation about food safety knowledge. Data was processed in Excel Spreadsheet. Paired t-test was applied using SPSS version 20 for comparison of variables. P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. A pair t-test was conducted to study the impact of pre and post training food safety knowledge of food handlers working in various restaurants in district Lahore. Almost all the results were significant which revealed that training has great impact in enhancing food safety knowledge of food handlers. All the results were significant at (P < 0.05). In first section, general questions about food safety, all results were significant. It shows different mean values of pre and post training and it revealed the impact of training on general food safety of food handlers. In personnel hygiene section, most of the results were significant, except the question “do you use safe water for cooking and cleaning?” because of reasons using safe water is the basic need and
CHAPTER 6
SUMMARY
SUMMARY
47
training do not have impact on it. In third section, questions related to foods or ingredients, all the results observed are significant. It shows means of before and after training are different and it shows that training has great impact on the knowledge related to food or their ingredients. In last section, question related to food machinery, most of the results are significant except “can the surfaces of all equipment be sanitized?” and “Do you use same knife or/and cutting board for cutting of vegetables, raw meat and fruits?” because of the reasons the surfaces of all the equipment’s cannot be sanitized due to lack of facilities available at restaurants and because it is a common practice to use same knife or cutting boards for cutting of fruits, vegetables and raw meat and also due to some financial issues, this shows training do not have impact on it. Present study is an effort to provided valuable information about the level of food safety knowledge of food handlers. Trainings conducted at different restaurants are helpful to increase the knowledge of restaurants food handlers regarding food hazards, cross-contamination and personal hygiene. Suggestions for Future Researchers
• Training materials (e.g., proforma, presentation) regarding food safety must be optimized according to Pulseberry Health Consultant and SGS Pakistan rules and regulations.
• Prior to the trainings, relevant documentation i.e., permission letter must be issued and verified from Punjab Food Authority to avoid any inconvenience.