A bulletin for the Australian Food Industry September 1997
Contents: Training and national food hygiene legislation | ANZFA draft standard on food additives | Unusual chemical poisoning incident | Chlorfluazuron (CFZ) residues in meat | Hepatitis A transmission by foods | Garibaldi charges dropped | Cheese from unpasteurised milk | Date marking of processed foods for export | Fungi and food spoilage
Training and national food hygiene legislation
It will be an obligation on the proprietor of a food business under proposed national food hygiene legislation to ensure that food handlers engaged in the food business have the skills and competencies in food hygiene matters commensurate with work activities. While there will doubtless be many courses available for proprietors to send staff to, and no shortage of trainers prepared to conduct courses on food premises, the question has to be asked: will these options lead to competent staff?
A recent paper (Food Control 8 (3) 1997 pp.137-146) reports the findings of a study which investigated the effectiveness of a food hygiene training course in Scotland and discusses the implications these may have for food safety control in the UK and elsewhere.
Food hygiene knowledge, attitudes and opinions of the course participants were assessed before and after training and compared with a control group. The training course is described as 'typical of many certificated training courses applied in the food industry' and was developed by the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland.
The results bear close examination by local health authorities and trainers. It was found that on completion of the course, no significant improvement was observed in course participants' knowledge of a number of crucial aspects of food safety, including food storage, cross contamination, temperature control and high risk foods. The authors conclude that their findings highlight problems likely to arise from reliance on training designs which primarily emphasize the provision of information that seldom translates into positive attitudes and behaviours.
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