P1-106 Observed Food Safety Behaviors among Consumers and Employees in Market-style Restaurants

Sunday, July 26, 2015
Exhibit Hall (Oregon Convention Center)
Eun-Sol Her , The Ohio State University , Columbus , OH
Victor Pool , The Ohio State University , Columbus , OH
Jihee Choi , The Ohio State University , Columbus , OH
Sanja Ilic , The Ohio State University , Columbus , OH
Soobin Seo , The Ohio State University , Columbus , OH
Introduction: Market-style restaurants (MSR) are becoming popular in that a variety of food choices are offered to customers in one location easily found in shopping malls, hospitals, and universities. While shared dining area of MSR may produce additional food safety hazards because of the greater risk of cross-contamination, limited research has examined the food safety practices in MSR.

Purpose: This study aims to assess observed food safety behaviors of consumers and employees in MSR that may contribute to the risk of foodborne illnesses.

Methods: One hundred one consumers (41% female; 65% Caucasian, 17% Asian, 6% African American, 2% other; 71% with co-eaters, 29% alone) and 34 employees (71% female; 56% Caucasian, 24% Asian, 18% African American, 3% other; 59% food preparation/cooking, 35% serving, 6% cashier) were observed at three market-style restaurants in a Midwestern university using Smartphone technology. For each observed individual, 30 transactions were recorded in a sequence of observed action, the object of the action, and observed hand sanitization practice. Fifteen percent of observations were conducted together by the observers to verify the inter-rater reliability, showing 77% of agreement.

Results: From a total of 3,030 consumer transactions, 73% (n = 2,222) were identified as behaviors that required hand sanitization practices but only 71 transactions (3%) were followed by cleaning hands with napkins. Particularly, the behaviors requiring hand sanitization were more commonly observed when consumers were eating with other people (22.5 ± 3.7 transactions) than when they ate alone (20.9 ± 4.0; t(49) = -1.8, P < 0.1). Male consumers were more often engaging in sanitization practices (4.7 ± 9.0%) than females (1.7 ± 3.9%; t(86) = -2.3, P < 0.05). Among 1,020 observed transactions of employees, 50% (n = 513) were identified as behaviors requiring hand sanitization practices, while only 4 transactions (1%) were followed by changing gloves.

Significance: The findings reveal poor food safety practices of consumers and employees, raising the needs of developing effective risk communication strategies for MSR.