Prevention adopted by healthcare workers within their families in the Covid-19 pandemic

Objective: To identify factors associated with the adoption of non-pharmacological preventive measures against covid-19 by healthcare workers within their families. Method: This is an analytical cross-sectional study carried out from October 1st to December 31st, 2020, with 11,513 healthcare workers in Brazil. Data collection through a virtual questionnaire on the platform Survey Monkey. To characterize the participants, descriptive statistical analysis was used with measures of absolute and relative frequency. Using inferential statistics, independent variables and outcome were compared, with hypothesis tests for association (chi-square, Fisher’s exact test), logistic regression, and Woe analysis. A significance level of 95% was used. Results: Most workers used measures such as hand hygiene, environmental sanitation, food hygiene, use of fabric masks, and physical distancing from family members. The association among variables was significant for the region, especially the South region, female sex, and nursing professionals. Conclusion: Healthcare workers adopt preventive measures against covid-19 within family life, especially the women and nursing professionals, with family isolation being the measure of greatest adherence.

Food safety, sanitation and hygiene practices among street food vendors in Pokhara, Kaski

Background: Street foods are unique and convenient urban food supply meanwhile it lacks the food hygiene and safety posing major public health risk. Thus, the study aims to identify the food safety, sanitation and hygiene practices of street food vendors. Method: The study is cross sectional including 70 vending units selected conveniently. Structured interview schedule and observation checklist was used as data collection tool. Result: The mean age of the respondent was 38.06 (±10.417) years with >1/2 being females (61.4%). Majority (77.1%) had formal education, 37.1% earns>40,000/month and 86 % had not taken any food hygiene training. Eighty percent of the respondents had fixed stall with about 83% sell freshly cooked food and 75% prepare it in market place. About 84% of the respondent revealed diarrhea as the most prevalent disease caused by poor hygiene. Very less (27%) have their health check-up regularly and about 68.6% prepare food when they are ill. Almost 50% heat food before serving, 58% wash dishes with tap water, 98.6% wash raw food before preparation and all of them wash cooking dishes daily. About half (48.6%) of the respondents re-use oil while cooking. Approximately in 77% refrigeration facility was available. The food vending was found to be good (>50) in 54.3% and sanitation was good (>50%) in 60%. Conclusion: Overall sanitary conditions of the vending sites were good but instead needs improvement in most of the aspect of sanitary condition.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Food Hygiene of Nursing Homes in South Korea

The purpose of this study is to investigate the importance of hygiene education for the safe and healthy diet of the elderly by analyzing hygiene knowledge, attitude, and practice of food hygiene in nursing homes that do not legally be required to hire a dietitian. A total of 40 nursing homes participated in a survey that combines telephone and mail. As a result, most of the foodservice management of the nursing home surveyed was conducted by the director (80.5%) or secretary (13.8%), not by dietitians, and their answer rate of hygiene knowledge related to elderly foodservice was 54.7%. In 6 of the 7 hygiene knowledge questions, there was a significant difference in the distribution of correct answer rates between the groups with and without hygiene education (p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001). In 5 out of 8 food hygiene attitude questions, all respondents (100%) showed a desirable hygiene attitude, and 99.0% of the respondents responded with a desirable attitude. The overall average practice rate for 8 hygienic practices items was 69.7%, and 6 of the 8 items showed significant differences in the distribution between those with and without hygiene education (p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001). Therefore, in order for the foodservice for the nursing home resident elderly to be managed hygienically and safely, hygiene education and training programs for foodservice managers such as directors and secretaries must be provided, and in order to manage the nursing home foodservice field, it is necessary to investigate the hygiene knowledge and practice degree of cooks and to prepare education and field management measures.

Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) Food and You 2: Wave 2

he Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) is run in partnership between the Food Standards Agency and Local Authorities and provides information on the standards of hygiene found in food businesses at the time they are inspected. The scheme covers businesses providing food directly to consumers, such as restaurants, pubs, cafés, takeaways, hotels, hospitals, schools and other places people eat away from home, as well as supermarkets and other food shops. In Wales, the scheme also includes businesses that trade only with other businesses, for example, manufacturers. Food and You 2: Wave 2 is the first wave of data collection to include questions relating to the FHRS. The Food and You 2 survey has replaced the biennial Food and You survey (2010-2018), biannual Public Attitudes Tracker (2010-2019) and the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) Consumer Attitudes Tracker (2014-2019). We previously commissioned the FHRS Consumer Attitudes Tracker survey to monitor consumer awareness, attitudes towards and use of the scheme. The survey moved from a biannual basis to an annual basis from 2017 onwards. Due to differences in the question content, presentation and mode of response, direct comparisons should not be made between these earlier surveys and Food and You 2.

Sanitation, Hygiene and Environmental Cleanliness for Child Development

This Frontiers of Sanitation draws on the Transformative WASH concept to explore and outline what may be required of WASH implementation stakeholders in efforts to support child development outcomes. The Frontiers explores the multiple ways in which inadequate sanitation, hygiene, and environmental cleanliness can affect physical and cognitive development in children. It explores areas beyond hand hygiene to consider food hygiene and broader environmental cleanliness, and beyond human faeces to consider animal faeces. What this means for practice is then discussed to outline how the WASH sector can improve current practice to best support improvements to child development outcomes and in particular opportunities for children to both survive and thrive.

Training Convolutional Neural Networks to Score Pneumonia in Slaughtered Pigs

The slaughterhouse can act as a valid checkpoint to estimate the prevalence and the economic impact of diseases in farm animals. At present, scoring lesions is a challenging and time-consuming activity, which is carried out by veterinarians serving the slaughter chain. Over recent years, artificial intelligence(AI) has gained traction in many fields of research, including livestock production. In particular, AI-based methods appear able to solve highly repetitive tasks and to consistently analyze large amounts of data, such as those collected by veterinarians during postmortem inspection in high-throughput slaughterhouses. The present study aims to develop an AI-based method capable of recognizing and quantifying enzootic pneumonia-like lesions on digital images captured from slaughtered pigs under routine abattoir conditions. Overall, the data indicate that the AI-based method proposed herein could properly identify and score enzootic pneumonia-like lesions without interfering with the slaughter chain routine. According to European legislation, the application of such a method avoids the handling of carcasses and organs, decreasing the risk of microbial contamination, and could provide further alternatives in the field of food hygiene.

Evaluation of a Harmonized Undergraduate Catalog for Veterinary Public Health and Food Hygiene Pedagogy in Europe

Current and emerging veterinary public health (VPH) challenges raised by globalization, climate change, and industrialization of food production require the veterinarian’s role to evolve in parallel and veterinary education to adapt to reflect these changes. The European Food Hygiene catalog was developed to provide a list of topics relevant to Day One Competencies in VPH. A study was undertaken to ensure that the catalog and teaching practices were pertinent to the work of public health veterinarians. Relevant stakeholders were consulted using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. A long questionnaire was distributed to 49 academics teaching VPH in European veterinary schools to review topics listed in the catalog. Eighteen responses were received (36.7%), representing 12 European countries. There was general agreement that most topics were appropriate for the undergraduate VPH curriculum. A short questionnaire was distributed to 348 European veterinarians working in the industry. Twenty-four questionnaires (6.7%) were received, representing eight European countries. Despite the low participation rate, topics needing greater emphasis in the undergraduate curriculum included Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP), food microbiology, and audits. Seven semi-structured interviews with public health veterinarians working in the UK identified the need for curricular changes including greater practical experience and a shift from a focus on meat inspection to risk management. This may be partly achieved by replacing traditional lectures with authentic case-based scenarios. The study findings can be used to inform the future direction to VPH education for veterinary students across Europe.

Detection of Salmonella sp. on Bulk Meatballs and Packaged Meatballs at Sepanjang Market, Sidoarjo

Background: Bacterial contamination in food can cause congenital diseases in the form of infections. Meatballs are one of the foods that are in demand by the public and foods that can be contaminated with salmonella bacteria. Detection of Salmonella sp bacteria can determine the quality of bulk meatballs and packaged meatballs. Salmonella sp bacteria should not contaminate the meatballs according to the quality requirements of the BSNI (Badan Standarisasi Nasional Indonesia). Purpose: To determine the contamination of Salmonella sp bacteria in bulk meatballs and packaged meatballs sold at Sepanjang market, Taman District, Sidoarjo Regency. Methods: The Salmonella sp. test on meatballs was carried out in four stages, pre-enrichment using Buffered Pepthone Water solution, enrichment using Tetrathionate Brothbase solution, isolation using Salmonella Shigella Agar media, and biochemical testing using Triple Sugar Iron Agar media. The samples used were 10 samples each. Result: The test proved that 20% of the samples were positively contaminated with Salmonella sp. both on bulk meatballs and on packaged meatballs. Conclusion: Food hygiene and sanitation must be applied properly and correctly in every process because food products circulating in public, especially meatball products, can avoid microbial contamination and be safe for consumption.

Microbiological Contamination and Food Hygiene Practices In old Restaurants In Nablus Governorate, Palestine

Introduction: Personal hygiene is important in maintaining food quality and health safety, so the low level of personal hygiene causes contamination leading to food spoilage and the occurrence of sick cases for consumers.Objective: This study was conducted under the Corona pandemic to verify food safety in Nablus old restaurants, Palestine, in the year 2021.Research methodology: This study covered 32 restaurants and 160 employees randomly selected. Data collection began between April and June in 2021 using 160 questionnaires that included 20 questions were answered by workers in these restaurants.Results: Contamination with coliform bacteria was found in the restaurant samples with a percentage (42.5%), where the samples have taken from the tables having the highest contamination of this bacterium (50%). Furthermore, the data revealed that there was a relationship between coliform bacteria contamination and age, educational level, and food safety training, as the contamination being seen in the group that got the training, In contrast to those who didn't at the P-value <0.20.Conclusion: There was an association of bacterial contamination with age, especially among the younger group who were less concerned with hygiene and food safety practices compared to the elderly group. And it turns out that restaurant workers must be properly trained in food safety and monitored regularly.