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The purpose of this paper was to evaluate food safety knowledge of among meat handlers in Serbian meat establishments along the meat chain, i.e. in slaughterhouses, meat processing plants and retail stores.

A structured, self-administrative questionnaire was designed and used to assess the level of food safety knowledge among handlers in different meat establishments. In total, of 352 meat handlers were involved in this study, with 110 handlers from slaughterhouses (31 per cent), 125 handlers from meat processing plants (36 per cent) and 116 handlers from retail stores (33 per cent). For each participant, the knowledge score was calculated by dividing the sum of correct answers by the total number of correct responses. Additionally, knowledge gaps among meat handlers were identified for each question across the three types of establishments (slaughterhouses, meat processing plants and retail stores).

The average knowledge score for all participants was 64 per cent, whereas handlers from slaughterhouses and meat processing plants obtained significantly better scores (65 per cent and 66 per cent, respectively) than handlers from retail (60 per cent, p < 0.05). The knowledge score among all meat handlers was significantly associated with the age, education and previous food safety trainings. Results indicated that 57.9 per cent meat handlers could identify that bacteria will readily multiply at 25 °C, but they do not understand the manifestation of bacterial growth and incidence in food, as only 5.5 per cent of all meat handlers knew that food contaminated with food poisoning bacteria cannot be recognized by visual, olfactory or taste checks.

This is the first research aimed to investigate the food safety knowledge among meat handlers in Serbia and also the first research performed to determine food safety knowledge among workers operating in different phases of the meat chain, namely meat handlers from slaughterhouses, meat processing plants and retail stores.

In many developing countries, the main source of food related illness is the fast foods restaurants. Health inspections of fast-food restaurants may not be sufficient to ensure and enforce the food safety regulations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of fast food handlers in Qatar.

Data were collected from 102 fast-food handlers through a structured survey. The questionnaire comprised questions on food safety KAP. The association between scores for KAP among the food handlers was measured with Spearman’s rank correlation.

A significant direct association was found throughout the different criteria of food safety KAP. In total, 90 percent of fast food handlers had undergone formal training on food safety. Although fast food handlers thought they had overall good knowledge on food safety (93.9 percent), results showed that they had a poor knowledge on proper cleaning of equipment, cross-contamination, foodborne diseases, food danger zone and correct procedures for thawing of frozen food. Only (34.7 percent) of the food handlers correctly identified Salmonella as a food pathogen.

Based on the current findings, the authors believe that continuous food safety and hygiene training should be implemented in all food service operations especially in fast-food restaurants in Qatar to ensure that all food handlers have the knowledge and the skill to provide safe food.

The purpose of this paper is to report the hygiene and sanitation practices of restaurant food handlers of urban Vadodara, Gujarat, India.

In total, 55 food handlers were purposively selected, to study their personal hygiene and unit hygiene practices using semi‐structured questionnaire and observation schedules, from 40 small and medium‐sized restaurants of urban Vadodara. Microbial analysis of five samples, namely, hand rinse sample, table mop cloth, towel, knife and plate swabs was carried out to determine the total plate count and presence of Staphylococcus aureus, Coliform counts, Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli 0157:H7.

Most food handlers exhibited poor personal hygiene and poor personal habits. E. coli 0157:H7 was detected in two out of three knife samples and table mop cloth samples; Salmonella was detected in one of the table mops cloths and two hand towel samples, respectively. Two of the table mop cloth samples also indicated presence of Shigella.

The survey of food handlers implies gross violation of codex guidelines laid down for safe cooking and services practices for small and medium‐sized restaurants.

Consumption of foods at small and medium‐sized restaurants of urban Vadodara poses a high risk for the consumers.

This is an original study which should act as an eye opener for the food safety officers who need to enforce the food safety laws more stringently, so as to reduce the risk of outbreaks of food borne illnesses in the city of Vadodara.

Food handlers are often a major source of norovirus transmission in the UK. Considering key behaviours of food handlers that lead to norovirus transmission would help prevent the spread. The purpose of this paper is to examine the key risk behaviours of food handlers that lead to norovirus transmission, and to recognise important prevention strategies.

A narrative review of the literature summarising the main risk behaviours of food handlers that lead to norovirus transmission.

Suboptimal personal hygiene such as poor hand washing compliance, working while ill or returning to work too early and not adhering to cleaning and disinfecting protocols were the main risk behaviours of food handlers identified. To prevent the transmission of norovirus within UK food establishments, environmental barriers such as limited access to cleaning products and facilities, workload and pay concerns should be resolved, and a theory-based approach should be used when developing training programmes to improve food handlers’ knowledge and behaviour. Systematic monitoring adhered to ensure food safety protocols should be regularly carried out.

A limited number of qualitative studies assessing food handlers’ attitudes and beliefs concerning norovirus transmission are available. Gaining more detailed and in-depth information on what food handlers perceive are the main barriers when it comes to adhering to food safety guidelines, would aid in the development of effective norovirus mitigation strategies.

This review discusses the main risk behaviours of food handlers associated with norovirus transmission. It highlights the need for more qualitative research on exploring the attitudes and beliefs of food handlers with regard to norovirus transmission.

Observations of food handlers’ practices have many uses. Describes the use of a notational analysis technique to monitor and analyse specific food safety actions of caterers. A total of 115 food handlers from 29 catering businesses were observed carrying out 31,050 food preparation and hygiene actions in their workplace. Notational analysis was found to offer little advantage, compared to traditional observation methods. However, this technique did allow tracking of sequential events and was successful in identifying and recording a greater number of cross‐contamination events than would have been highlighted using traditional approaches. The results demonstrated that, based on hygiene guidelines, food handlers were required to implement de‐contamination actions on a large number of occasions. These de‐contamination actions were frequently inadequately conducted. To improve standards of food hygiene in catering there is a need to minimise the requirements for de‐contamination activities thereby reducing the potential for cross‐contamination.

Despite extensive investments in food handler training, research suggests that training programs are inconsistent, and rarely evaluated for efficacy. The generic prescriptive content and school‐like delivery methods used in current food safety training may be a barrier to application. The purpose of this paper is to develop a food safety communication tool, food safety infosheets, targeted specifically to foodservice food handlers, utilizing popular media stories to illustrate the consequences of poor food handling.

Food safety infosheets were designed to be surprising, connect food handlers' actions and consequences, and generate discussion through a verbal narrative framework. A Delphi‐like exercise (n=19), a posting pilot (n=8) were carried out to assess the appropriateness of the concept of food safety infosheets. An intense participatory ethnographic study with an Ontario, Canada, restaurant, and in‐depth interviews with food service operators in Manhattan, Kansas, and Lansing, Michigan, (n=17) were conducted to gather qualitative data on the food service kitchen environment, including barriers to food safety practices, and the communication preferences of those who work in such kitchens.

The expert group, foodservice operators, and food handlers accepted food safety infosheets as an appropriate concept and valued storytelling as an effective communication strategy. Learning in the kitchen environment is largely hands‐on and visual, and time pressure dictates practices. It is often difficult to attract and keep the attention of food handlers. Storytelling, celebrity and local outbreaks are of interest to the target audience.

This paper provides a blueprint for the design and refinement of food safety communication tools targeted towards a specific audience. By utilizing multiple methodologies, it provides a framework for other researchers to follow.

Food safety knowledge and hygienic practices by food handlers play an important role in the prevention of contamination of food prepared.

This descriptive survey was conducted in Maseru around the taxi ranks amongst 48 food handlers and 93 consumers using a semi-structured questionnaire for assessing food handler knowledge, attitudes and practices, open-ended questionnaire for obtaining consumer perceptions and observation checklist.

Majority of the food handlers were females (60%) and males constituted only (40%). The mean age was 35.5 ± 10.3 and 28.2 ± 9.9 respectively for street vendors and consumers. There was a statistically significant difference in knowledge among the trained and untrained vendors (p = 0040). On average the vendor population that participated in this study was considered to have poor knowledge (scores < 50%) of food safety since they scored 49% ± 11, while 84% of the respondents were considered to have positive attitudes towards food safety. Only 6% of the consumers reported that they never buy street vended foods mainly due to the hygiene issues. The observation checklist showed that the vendors operated under unhygienic conditions and that there was scarcity of clean water supply and hand washing facilities.

This study provides knowledge that was previously unknown about food vending in Lesotho. It has significantly added to the body of knowledge on food safety in Lesotho which can be used to modify policies and structure food safety training for people involved in the informal trade.

The main objective of this study is to find out how food handlers in catering establishments perceive ensuring food safety and which problems they meet along the way.

Using a qualitative approach, ten food handlers in Slovenian catering facilities were included in the case study. A semi-structured approach was applied to provide a deeper insight into food safety barriers perceived by respondents. Participants first read short fictitious newspaper news about a foodborne disease at a tourist farm, which served as a starting point.

The results demonstrate barriers which most often originate in a lack of knowledge (e.g. improper food safety training, incorrect food safety knowledge testing, knowledge and maintaining of CCPs), shortage of food hygiene skills (e.g. handwashing, food defrosting) and weak work satisfaction (e.g. insufficient payment, poor interpersonal relationships and weak motivation). Food safety knowledge and consequently training methods were found to be the biggest barrier for the efficiency of the HACCP system in practice.

Due to the small sample, the results cannot be generalised to the entire population of food handlers in Slovenia.

The results indicate weaknesses in food safety knowledge among professional food handlers.

The study provides a deeper insight into implicit opinions of ten food handlers in catering facilities regarding barriers in providing food safety, their knowledge and behaviour in their work with food.

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers about food hygiene and sanitation in biscuit industry of central marketing company in Jessore, Bangladesh.

A self-administered, structured questionnaire was designed and data were collected during the period of April to July 2016 from 110 food handlers using simple random sampling.

The results show that the food handlers had excellent knowledge, attitude and good practices toward food hygiene and sanitation and food contamination related to food safety. The mean score (standard deviation) of knowledge, attitudes and practices were 20.1 (3.9), 18.6 (3.1) and 16.7 (3.3), respectively (p < 0.007). There was significant correlation between food safety training and knowledge, knowledge and attitude or knowledge and practices (p < 0.001). The majority (90.9 per cent) of the respondents stated that they intended to make sure that the prepared food was safe for consumers, which was significant (p < 0.007). Almost all of the food workers were aware of the critical role of general sanitary practices in the work place. The study suggests that the knowledge, attitude and practice level of food handlers were satisfactory.

Continuous education and training should be organized to strengthen food handlers’ knowledge in areas which seem to be deficient.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate future food handlers’ practices during practical lessons close to the end of their formal vocational education, and to record teachers’ behaviour and to evaluate classrooms that were intended for practical lessons.

A total of 90 students between 17 and 19 years of age, 12 teachers, and 12 training classrooms intended for practical lessons, which were divided into six observation sessions in the field of catering and six observation sessions in the field of food processing (bakery, confectionery, and butchery), were observed.

Both proper and inappropriate food-handling practices were observed among teachers and students. Comparing the hygienic-technical conditions of the training classrooms with teachers’ and students’ behaviour revealed several interconnected situations increasing the risk of food contamination during the production process.

Data were collected by one observer who was not part of the class. The sample size was small, limiting the generalisability of the results.

The results indicate the weaknesses in the formal vocational education of future professional food handlers.

Good food safety practices among food handlers reduce societal costs related to health-care systems and food industry economic losses.

The study provides an insight into the education and training of future professional food handlers in a controlled environment in educational institutions.