Transcript study - Food Safety News

Raw Meat and Poultry-Specific Knowledge Gaps among
Meat and Poultry Chicago Restaurant Food Handlers
Patpong Udompat, MS, Li Liu, PhD, Mark S. Dworkin, MD MPH&TM
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, Chicago, IL
Results
Background
Raw meat and poultry are potentially
hazardous commonly handled and cooked
foods in restaurants.
In a knowledge survey of 508 restaurant food
handlers performed in Chicago restaurants in
2009, the overall mean knowledge score was
only 72%.
However, this knowledge score may be
underestimated because the survey included
some questions that may not be relevant to
each food handler’s specific duties.
We analyzed knowledge data concerning
meat and poultry food handling only among
the subset of food handlers that work with
meat and poultry.
Table 1: Food Handler and Restaurant
Characteristics (N= 372)
Food Handler Characteristics
Gender
Male
Female
Language
English
Spanish
Other
Race/Ethnicity
White
Hispanic/Latino
Black
Other
Education
Lower high school
High school
271 (73)
101 (27)
183 (49)
163 (44)
26 (7)
83 (23)
205 (55)
50 (13)
33 (9)
78 (21)
106 (28)
Higher high school
188 (51)
Beef may be placed in the microwave to defrost (True)
65.3
Raw meat can be stored on foil-lined shelves to prevent dripping onto other foods (False)
56.2
Raw meat can be stored anywhere in a refrigerator as long as it is wrapped in plastic (False)
45.4
There were also important knowledge gaps
related to knowledge of proper storage of raw
meat, appropriate defrosting of beef and
poultry, and of cross contamination.
Eating ground meat that is not completely cooked can cause bloody diarrhea (True)
36.8
Raw meat can be stored below ready to serve food (True)
31.2
Beef may be placed in cold water to defrost (True)
30.1
It is safe to put frozen chicken breast on the counter to thaw (False)
Size
Small
Medium
Large
Fast Food
Informal
Formal
American
Mexican
Italian
Other
<$10
$10-20
>$20
Service Style
Type of Cuisine
Methods
We analyzed data derived from a 41question survey of 508 food handlers from
125 participating restaurants in Chicago.
Only the 372 meat and poultry handlers
were included in the analysis.
The survey had true-false or multiplechoice format (incorrect responses or ”do
not know” were assigned to 0) and
included 13 questions specific to meat or
poultry handling or cooking processes
(Figure 1). Only these 13 meat and poultryspecific knowledge questions were
analyzed to determine the knowledge
score. For comparison, these 372 food
handlers scored 72% overall on the general
knowledge survey.
The percentage of incorrect responses
among meat and poultry handlers was
compared and the frequency distributions
of meat and poultry specific knowledge
questions was determined.
N (%)
Yes and a manager
Certified, not manager
Not certified, not manager
Restaurant Characteristics of the Food Handlers
The objective of this study was to determine
if the knowledge score of food handlers
would be much higher than previously
recorded if the score was based only on
questions relevant to their food handling
duties.
Even though we limited the subanalysis to
meat and poultry handlers responses to meat
and poultry-specific questions (and 66% of
them surveyed were certified), the mean
knowledge score (72%) was not substantially
higher than the mean score using a more
general food safety knowledge survey (72%).
Figure 1: Percentage of Incorrect Responses to Each Meat and
Poultry-Specific Knowledge Question
Certification
Objectives
Discussion
Average Entrée Price
150(40)
95 (26)
127 (34)
24.5
Beef may be placed on the counter to defrost (False)
16.9
Vegetables for a salad splashed with a few drops of raw chicken juice should not be rinsed, but instead must be thrown away (True)
135 (36)
16.4
97 (26)
Beef may be placed in the refrigerator to defrost (True)
140 (38)
16.1
111 (30)
Uncooked beef is potentially contaminated with germs that can cause people to be hospitalized or die (True)
161 (43)
9.1
100 (27)
We recommend that local health departments
should focus on educating meat and poultry
k 50% of food handlers
handlers because almost
and almost 35% of certified food handlers had
a knowledge score below 70% .
Raw meat can be stored above ready to serve food (False)
220 (59)
7.5
52 (14)
Uncooked chicken is potentially contaminated with germs that can cause people to become very ill (True)
53 (14)
3
47 (13)
215 (58)
100 (27)
0
57 (15)
20
40
60
80
100
Percent
Figure 2: Frequency Distribution of Meat and Poultry-Specific Knowledge Questions Figure 3: Frequency Distribution of Meat and Poultry-Specific Knowledge Questions
among Meat and Poultry Food handlers (N =372)
among Certified Meat and Poultry Food Handlers (N= 245)
Percent
25.0
20.0
15.0
25.0
~ 50 % of food handlers
scored below 70 %
~ 35% of certified food
handlers scored below 70 %
20.4
20.0
Overall mean score= 72% (9.4 correct/13 questions)
Standard deviation= 16%
14.0
Range= 15%-100%
15.9
15.6
14.3
15.0
10.0
21.2
20.4
•Palak Panchal, MPH
•IDPH Division of Food, Drugs and Dairies and City of Chicago Health
Department
14.3
Contact
10.0
5.9
5.0
6.5
3.0
0.0
0.3
0.3
3.0
5.0
3.3
3.7
6
7
4.5
1.2
1.1
0.0
0.0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Number of correct questions
13
Food safety certification should require a
higher level of knowledge to be considered
certified or more frequent verification that
knowledge is retained with an emphasis on
knowledge of proper storage, cooking
temperatures, severity of illness, and
prevention of cross contamination.
Acknowledgements
19.2
Overall mean score= 77% (10 correct/13 questions)
Standard deviation= 13.8%
12.2
Range= 38%-100%
More than 1/3 of these food handlers did not
know about the severity of illness that may
result from eating incompletely cooked beef.
This raises the concern that they may not
appreciate the rationale for the
recommendations for checking temperatures
in a menu item such as meatloaf.
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•Mark Dworkin, MD MPH&TM
University of Illinois at Chicago
Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
[email protected]
Patpong Udompat, PhD student
University of Illinois at Chicago
Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
[email protected]
Research Funded By:
Cooperative State Research, Education, And Extension
Service (CSREES), US Department of Agriculture(Grant no. USDA 2008-01691)