scholarly journals Staphylococcal Food Poisoning and Novel Perspectives in Food Safety

Author(s):  
Zhenbo Xu ◽  
Brian M. Peters ◽  
Bing Li ◽  
Lin Li ◽  
Mark E. Shirtliff
Keyword(s):  
1997 ◽  
Vol 60 (9) ◽  
pp. 1105-1109 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARGY J. WOODBURN ◽  
CAROLYN A. RAAB

There has been extensive media coverage of the Pacific Northwest outbreak of foodborne illness caused by Escherichia coli O157:H7 in 1993 and continuing smaller incidences of both E. coli and salmonella transmission by food. An increase in consumer awareness and knowledge of microbial food safety was expected as a result. A telephone survey of Oregon food preparers (using a random-digit-dialing household sample) in December 1995 and January 1996 revealed that knowledge about foodborne illness was greater than in previous studies. Of the 100 respondents, 88% named appropriate foods as being at high risk for food poisoning. Salmonella contamination was recognized as a problem in food by 99%, E. coli by 100%, but campylobacter by only 7%. Major foods which have been associated with salmonella were named correctly by 90% and with E. coli by 87%. Although raw or rare meats or fish were rarely eaten or ordered by respondents, hamburgers were frequently requested to be cooked to “medium” doneness. Many said they would thoroughly cook food contaminated with bacteria to make it safe to eat (56% for salmonella and 59% for E. coli) but 40% responded that the foods either couldn't be made safe to eat or that they didn't know of a way. Respondents in general could not identify specific groups of people especially at risk for foodborne illness. Educational efforts should focus on risk groups and ways that consumers can prevent foodborne illness.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Maryam Al-Ghazali ◽  
Ismail Al-Bulushi ◽  
Lyutha Al-Subhi ◽  
Mohammad Shafiur Rahman ◽  
Amani Al-Rawahi

Food safety is vital to human beings as well as to the food industry. Therefore, knowledge and hygiene practice of food safety among food handlers are particularly important. Evaluation of food safety knowledge and hygienic practices among 18 restaurants in three different regions (i.e., districts) in the Governorate of Muscat was performed. In order to determine the quality level of restaurants, grouping (i.e., Region 1, Region 2, and Region 3; e.g., Group I, Group II, and Group III) was adopted from the regulations and assigned by the municipality based on the number of complaints against the restaurants. A questionnaire was designed to assess the knowledge of hygiene, food poisoning, food handling, cooking, and local regulations/rules of the food handlers in selected restaurants. The food handlers in the Region 1 restaurants showed significantly higher ( p < 0.05 ) overall knowledge (58.6%) in food safety as compared to Region 2 (52.1%) and Region 3 (53.2%). Overall knowledge of food handlers in Group I restaurants was significantly higher ( p < 0.05 ) (64.4%) as compared to Group II (53.1%) and Group III (48.1%). The hygiene practices in Group I restaurants were significantly higher ( p < 0.05 ) than those in Groups II and III. A small but significant inverse association ( r 2 = − 0.38 ) between total knowledge scores and hygiene practices was found. In conclusion, higher knowledge in the field is associated with better hygiene practices, and these are more likely to prevent food poisoning originating from restaurants. We recommend implementing specialized education courses and workshops for the food handlers as a requirement before embarking on service to decrease the risks of foodborne diseases.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 130
Author(s):  
Kus Aisya Amira ◽  
Stefania Widya Setyaningtyas

Healthy snacks are snacks that are clean, safe, healthy, and nutritious. The food safety of snacks sold in school environment cannot be guaranteed, so it can cause food poisoning among children. The importance of food safety knowledge can be used to prevent food poisoning from contamination such as biological, chemical, or physical contamination. Based on several studies, healthy snacks education can improve children’s knowledge and attitudes that related to the selection of healthy snacks by using various media. The purpose of this literature review is to determine the eff ect of nutrition education on knowledge and attitudes of elementary students in the selection of healthy snacks. This literature study included the articles which used experimental study with pre-test and post-test in elementary students as the subject. There are ten selected articles that were included in the review. The results indicated that nutrition education about healthy snacks could improve knowledge of students in selecting healthy snacks. Moreover, there were 6 articles showed that nutrition education could improve the attitudes of students in the selection of healthy snacks as well. Nutrition education can infl uence the knowledge and attitudes of elementary students in the selection of healthy snacks.


Author(s):  
Samuel Imathiu

A descriptive, cross-sectional survey was conducted using an online questionnaire to assess food safety knowledge, beliefs and attitudes among Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology undergraduate students. A total of 329 learners consented to participate in the study. The results revealed that overall respondents answered 46.2% of the food safety knowledge questions correctly with similar scores across the five colleges (Agriculture and Natural Resources 47.4%, Human Resource and Development 45.2%, Engineering and Technology 46.7%, Health Sciences 45.4%, and Pure and Applied Sciences 46.5%). Over 70% of respondents seemed to have positive beliefs and attitudes in most of the food safety beliefs and attitudes statements. A 78.7% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that food safety knowledge is important to them while 72.1% and 77.7% of the respondents were willing to learn how to make their food safe to eat, and how to prevent food poisoning from occurring respectively. Only a small proportion (3.3%) of respondents felt that food safety was not their responsibility. The areas of most concern in food safety knowledge were in regard to cross-contamination and temperature control/food preservation. The proportions of correct responses on; “Imagine that your electricity went off and the meat, chicken, and/or seafood in your freezer thawed and felt warm. To prevent food poisoning, what should you do?”, “A refrigerator has three shelves, on which shelf do you think raw meat should be placed?” and “What should be done if the leftovers are still not eaten completely?” were 7.3%, 24% and 24.6% respectively. These results show that students who participated in this study generally had unsatisfactory food safety knowledge regardless of their study category. There is therefore a need to offer food safety education/training to all learners, perhaps in short courses forms and not only on theory, but also on practical food safety aspects to bridge the food safety information gap.


Author(s):  
Sonia Morya ◽  
Archibald Ekow Dennis Danquah Amoah ◽  
Stefan Orn Snaebjornsson
Keyword(s):  

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graziela Alvarez Corrêa da Costa ◽  
Rita De Cássia Akutsu ◽  
Lorenza R. dos Reis Gallo ◽  
Wilma Maria Coelho Araújo

<p class="1"><span lang="EN-US">The purpose of this research was to analyze the perceptions and practices of participants involved in safe food handling. The sample was composed by 204 participants. To assess behavior, knowledge and psychosocial factors, the instrument used was divided in six topics: sociodemographic characteristics; behavioral measures regarding safe food production; measures about knowledge and practices in pest control and food purchase; Food Safety scale with two factors and Cronbach's alpha of 0.75; Credence declaration scale with three factors and Cronbach's alpha of 0.78, both scales with seven points, Likert type; Self-efficacy scale with one factor and Cronbach's alpha of 0.86, also Likert type with five points. A linear model of multiple variance analysis was used to evaluate if the variables gender, age, income, education and professional experience were used to determine the behavioral, knowledge and psychosocial measures. When the detected differences were significant, a post-hoc analysis was used with the Tukey adjustment. The knowledge about safe food production and food poisoning showed that 95.1% of participants consider <em>very important</em> hygiene precautions in food preparation in their homes; 30.4% of participants said that they or someone in their family have developed symptoms related to food poisoning in the last 12 months. The data obtained for self-efficacy showed significant differences for the variables gender, age and education. Women and college graduates replied that they <em>Are Sure they Can Do That </em>when asked about the execution of tasks that promote food safety. </span><span lang="EN-US">These results substantiate the need for educational initiatives tailored to develop the food safety knowledge and food-handling practices in Brasil.</span><strong></strong></p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 130-139
Author(s):  
Banfitebiyi Gambogou ◽  
Essodolom Taale ◽  
Kefia Richala Ouro ◽  
Essi Kokutse ◽  
Ekpessi Bouka ◽  
...  

Collective food toxiinfections (CFTI) are frequent accidents, formidable by their health and economic consequences. They usually result from the consumption of food contaminated with microorganisms or chemical toxins. The objective of our study is to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and practices of food product handlers in Kloto 1 municipality in order to guarantee food safety. To do this, we carried out a survey using google form whose questions were based on knowledge of foodborne diseases, good hygiene practices, good manufacturing practices, cross-contamination, wearing jewelry during handling, waste management. As a result of the study, It shows that during the years 2018, 2019 and 2020, the frequencies of toxiinfections recorded at the PHC of Kpalimé are respectively 33.09%, 41.84%, and 25.06%. To acces risk factor about this hight case of food poissoning in this area, 197 food handlers (FH) were interviewed and of these, 54.4% were women, 51.3% are between 15 and 25 years old, 67.2% have secondary education, and 68.7% have not received training on food safety. In terms of the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices, 10.7% of FH have insufficient knowledge about food safety, 98.0% have negative attitudes and 100.0% have insufficient food safety practices. Also, it shown that there is a strong positive correlation between knowledge and attitudes (rs = 0,267; p= 0.000), between knowledge and practices (rs = 0.182; p = 0.011), between attitudes and practices (rs = 0.253; p = 0.000), and between knowledge about foodborne illness and practice (rs = 0.189; p = 0,008). In short, the majority of FH have insufficient knowledge, practice and negative attitudes to avoid cases of CFTI because of the lack of training in food safety.


Author(s):  
Ahmet Duran Çelik

Food safety is an important issue that concerns every consumer. In order to ensure food safety, the level of consumers’ awareness is important as well as the psychical environment of the food production process. According to some previous studies about food safety, a significant portion of food poisoning or various food-related illnesses are caused by improper food practices at home. This study aimed at determining the knowledge level, behaviour, and risk perception of food engineering students regarding food safety. According to the research results: 74,79% of the students "always" look at the expiration dates of food products while shopping; they trust supermarkets the most when purchasing meat products; and they consider genetically modified products (GMOs) to be the most risky food product group.


2020 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 452-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAN MEI SOON

ABSTRACT Social media offers numerous advantages for personal users and organizations to communicate, socialize, and market their products. When used correctly, social media is an effective tool to communicate and to share food safety news and good practices. However, there have been reports of fake food safety news shared via social media, fueling panic and resulting in a loss of revenue. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the consumers' awareness, trust, and usage of social media in communicating food safety news in Malaysia. A questionnaire divided into five sections—(i) demographics, (ii) reaction to food safety news, (iii) consumers' awareness, (iv) social media truth and level of trust, and (v) social media uses and content creation—was created and shared online. A total of 341 questionnaires were returned of which 339 surveys were valid. This study revealed that less than one-third of the study group (27.1%) knew which of the food safety news were fake. Most respondents (67.8%) were less likely to purchase the affected foods if the foods were featured in social media as problematic, although no differences were made between true and fake news and how that would influence respondents' willingness to purchase affected foods. Overall, 62% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed about the usage of social media and its ability to prevent food poisoning cases, while more than 50% of the respondents were in total agreement that social media allow consumers to act more responsibly by sharing food safety news. Respondents tended to trust information shared by scientists (67.5%) and family members and friends (33%). Respondents would most often share the news after verifying its authenticity (46%). If respondents experienced a personal food safety issue (e.g., discovered a fly in their meal), they seldom or never took photos to post online (56.1%). It is possible that the respondents preferred to inform the food handlers and/or shop owners about the affected products rather than post the photos online. It is suggested that targeted food safety information and media literacy be provided to improve consumers' awareness and to positively influence self-verification of the food safety information before sharing. This study provides crucial insights for a range of stakeholders, particularly public authorities, food bloggers, and the public, in using social media effectively to build consumers' awareness and trust in food safety information. HIGHLIGHTS


Food Research ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-306
Author(s):  
A.A. Asmahan ◽  
I.E. Wafa ◽  
M.M. Abl El-Razik

The study aimed to assess the effect of the training program in the level of concerns knowledge and various practices related to food safety among female students of the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. The number of participants in the study is 265 female students, with a response rate of 94.35% and an average age of 21 years. The questionnaire used in this study was divided into five sections: 1: demographic information, sections 2 to 5 measuring the students ’concerns about: the risks affecting food safety, the correct behaviours of food preparation and their relationship to food poisoning, the methods of food circulation and the practices during the preparation of foods, respectively. The main concerns of the participants were: food taste, food temperature, methods of foods are served and the cooking degree of food. They also focused on the cleanliness of the area of preparation and the overall appearance of food handlers. The participants showed good knowledge regarding food safety, and they were more familiar with the cleanliness of kitchen surfaces and utensils, ways to prevent contamination and the importance of hand hygiene, but they showed weak knowledge about the appropriate temperatures of cooking and holding food after it is cooked. According to the results of this study, it was noticed that there is a significant effect of the training program on food safety knowledge and practices among students. As it was noticed that after the training program, the student's behaviour and knowledge of the principles and factors affecting food safety increased, including the method of handling, preparing and serving food, especially the cleanliness of food working surfaces and food cooking temperatures. As well as the personal hygiene of food handlers and its impact on the safety of the food product provided for consumption. At the same time, it could be recommended that there is a need for educational programs aimed at encouraging students to adhere to the practice of food safety measures, and not only to enhance their knowledge.


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