• Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.141-148
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• 2005

Food handling practices playa key role in the prevalence of food-borne illness. Despite the fact that pregnant women are high risk groups for food-borne disease, little is known about their actual food handling practices at home. The objective of this study was to investigate behaviors regarding food-related hygienic practices of pregnant women. The questionnaire included questions in five major areas : personal hygiene ; adequate cooking ; avoiding cross contamination ; keeping food at safe temperatures ; and avoiding food from unsafe sources. Analysis of 488 questionnaires showed the respondents were unaware of the importance of safe food handling practices. Especially, pregnant women in our study should be encouraged to be careful about either risk of adequate cooking $(2.08\pm0.66)$ and keeping foods at safe temperatures $(2.69\pm0.63)$. Residency and number of children were consistent independent predictors of food handling behaviors. Previous food safety education also was found to have significant effect on food handling practices. TV news and newspapers were considered the most usable sources of food safety information by respondents. The behaviors identified in this study represent ones of particular importance for high-risk populations, like pregnant women. These population characteristics identified in this study could be incorporated in development of food safety educational programs for pregnant women being vulnerable on food-borne illness. Our results could have implications for the design of effective food safety educational efforts. This study indicates the need for continued and improved food safety education and for enforcing systematic food safety education for pregnant women.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.357-363
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to assess current food-handling practices of employees in school food service settings, as well as their knowledge levels, and identify relationships between knowledge, practices, and influencing variables. The survey was conducted for dietitians and employees in the school foodservice industry in Gyeongsangbuk-do province. A total of 270 and 570 questionnaires for dietitians and employees, respectively, were distributed by mail. Response rates were $62\%$ (N=171) and $66\%$ (N=376) from dietitians and employees, respectively. Data was analyzed using SPSS Windows (version 10.0). Descriptive statistics were used to summarize data. Pearson correlations were applied to test for relationships between knowledge and practice of HACCP principles. Stepwise regression analysis was performed to examine the influence of knowledge, current education guidelines, demographic information (working experience, academic background, and certification for food and cooking), and school characteristics (food production system, service style, and number of meals). School foodservice employees were found to have a significant amount of food safety knowledge ($67.5\pm1.8$ out of 100 possible points). Proper food handling practices were not always being followed in many schools. The relationship between their knowledge, current HACCP education training, and food handling practices was not significant. These results suggested the present situation of HACCP trainings performed by dietitians were inadequate for many school foodservice operations. The number of meals in school was an independent predictor of the employees' food-handling practices. These results suggest that an effective education program should integrate endeavors that take account of social and environmental influences on food safety to support the improvement of food-handling practices and the implementation of a HACCP program. Furthermore, dietitians should continue to provide consulting, training, and technical assistance to schools on HACCP implementation.

• International Journal of Quality Innovation
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.70-78
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• 2004

Client-supplier collaboration in new product development (NPD) has been a strategy in response to fierce global competition. Traditionally, Hong Kong suppliers collaborate with worldwide clients through original equipment manufacturing (OEM) arrangement in which suppliers manufacture products according to clients' design. In recent years, a growing number of Hong Kong suppliers have transformed to original design manufacturing (ODM) in which they are assigned a design responsibility other than manufacturing products. The ODM arrangement necessitates a close interaction between clients and suppliers, which brings about intense conflict. Conflict has been recognized as an important factor affecting NPD performance including product quality. This paper studies the conflict handling practices of Hong Kong ODM suppliers based on 87 survey data. The results show that the suppliers frequently adopt effective conflict handling practices by which they can develop products of good quality through better design decisions. The results also suggest that the use of ineffective conflict handling behaviors, particularly avoiding, should be reduced for better product quality.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.147-158
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• 2005

A food safety survey was conducted to assess the housewives' handling practices and consumption of potentially risky foods in family home. More than $40\%$ of the respondents wash their hands without soap or use their wash towels after contact with potentially risky foods such as meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, raw eggs, meat processed foods, raw fruits and vegetables. Over half of the respondents have consumed undercooked eggs without recognizing the potential health risk of consumption of raw eggs. $34\%$ of the respondents do not wash their hands after breaking raw eggs, indicating high risk of cross contamination while handling raw eggs. More than $60\%$ of the respondents just use running water to wash fresh fruits and vegetables. $78.9\%\;and\;45.2\%$ of the respondents have consumed sushi/sashimi or raw oysters, respectively in the past 12 months. The results of this study indicate the substantial risks of unsafe food-handling practice at the points of cross-contamination, cooling practices, storage time, and consumption of potentially risky foods at home. Considering the housewives' participation in school food service, development of food safety education program for the housewives is needed to promote safe handling practices of potentially risky foods.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.738-744
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• 2008

In most developing countries consumers purchase retail cuts from hot carcasses and prepare traditional meat products as per their convenience and requirements. In this study, effects of different post mortem handling practices on quality of meat curry from culled sheep meat have been studied. After slaughter, leg cuts were subjected to nine commonly prevalent handling conditions in India viz. deboning (boning out) and cooking within 2-3 h (1), deboning immediately and cooking after 5-6 h (2), deboning after 5-6 h and cooking (3), deboning immediately, storage at $4^{\circ}C$ for 24 h and cooking (4), chilling for 24 h at $4^{\circ}C$, deboning and cooking (5), deboning after 5-6 h, storage for 24 h at $4^{\circ}C$, and cooking (6), deboning after 5-6 h, storage for 48 h at 4??C and cooking (7), deboning after 5-6 h, freezing and cooking (8), deboning after 5-6 h, storage for 24 h at $4^{\circ}C$, freezing and cooking (9). Significant differences were observed in pH, water-holding capacity, cooking loss and shear force values. Sensory scores were significantly higher in conditions (1), (5) and (9), and significantly lower in conditions (4) and (6). From the results, it was concluded that, to have the best quality product, meat should be cooked either immediately after slaughter or should be deboned just before cooking. Storage of deboned meat at refrigerated temperature must be avoided.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.69-73
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• 2013

Background: An increasing trend of cytotoxic drug use, mainly in cancer treatment, has increased the occupational exposure among the nurses. This study aimed to assess the change of nurses' safety-related knowledge as well as attitude levels and subsequently to assess the change of cytotoxic drug handling practices in wards after a series of pharmacist-based interventions. Materials and Methods: This prospective interventional study with a before and after design requested a single group of 96 nurses in 15 wards actively providing chemotherapy to answer a self-administered questionnaire. A performance checklist was then used to determine the compliance of all these wards with the recommended safety measures. The first and second assessments took 2 months respectively with a 9-month intervention period. Pharmacist-based interventions included a series of technical, educational and administrative support measures consisting of the initiation of closed-system cytotoxic drug reconstitution (CDR) services, courses, training workshops and guideline updates. Results: The mean age of nurses was $32.2{\pm}6.19$ years. Most of them were female (93.8%) and married (72.9%). The mean knowledge score of nurses was significantly increased from $45.5{\pm}10.52$ to $73.4{\pm}8.88$ out of 100 (p<0.001) at the end of the second assessment. Overall, the mean practice score among the wards was improved from $7.6{\pm}5.51$ to $15.3{\pm}2.55$ out of 20 (p<0.001). Conclusions: The pharmacist-based interventions improved the knowledge, attitude and safe practices of nurses in cytotoxic drug handling. Further assessment may help to confirm the sustainability of the improved practices.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.74-80
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to investigate culinary arts and hospitality students' food safety practice behaviors, intentions, attitudes, and barriers to food safety compliance. This descriptive study used the self-report questionnaire. The convenience sample was composed of 266 college students majoring in culinary arts and hospitality. The students indicated that they never or rarely use a thermometer to determine if meats have been adequately cooked. Examples of positive food handling behaviors were hand washing, sanitation of fruits and vegetables, discarding of food past its expiration date, counter top sanitation, and proper food storage. Students strongly agreed it is their responsibility to practice food safety and to educate their employees about food safety. The primary barrier to proper food safety as ranked by student respondents is the misunderstanding about food labeling. Previous food safety education and internship experience appeared to improve the student respondents' perceived attitudes toward following the principles of food safety practices (p < 0.05), although behaviors and intentions to use the correct food safety practices were not affected. The findings of this study suggest that programs should consider integrating information and experiential learning opportunities in their courses that would be enhance student understanding about food safety. The outcomes of this study can be applied to develop food safety education materials and programs for culinary arts and hospitality students.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.573-586
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• 2016

The present study was conducted on 200 food handlers employed at restaurants with open-kitchens in Seoul to evaluate their food sanitation knowledge levels and practices. A majority of participants (88%) replied that open-kitchens are more hygienic than common kitchens due to the sanitary cooking process. The correct answer rate was 94.3% for sanitation of instruments and utensils and environmental sanitation, whereas food handling sanitation (66.8%) was ranked at the bottom among food sanitation knowledge. Total scores of food sanitation knowledge were significantly influenced by education level and ages of food handlers (p<0.001). Personal hygiene knowledge level of food handlers regarding institutional food service was higher than that of food handlers at restaurants and bakeries (p<0.001). Food sanitation practices scores showed significant differences in personal hygiene (p<0.001) and environmental sanitation (p<0.05) according to certificate possession. As the result of correlation analysis between food sanitation knowledge and practices, there was no significantly positive correlation, whereas a significant positive correlation was observed between knowledge of food handling and personal hygiene practices (p<0.05). The results show need for improvement in both knowledge and practice levels of open-kitchen food handlers. Consistent and customized food sanitation education program should be developed to protect against food poisoning at open-kitchen restaurants.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.372-380
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• 2018

The manual handling of people (MHP) is known to be associated with high incidence of musculoskeletal disorders for aged care staff. Environment-related MHP interventions, such as appropriate seated heights to aid sit-to-stand transfers, can reduce staff injury while improving the patient's mobility. Promoting patient mobility within the manual handling interaction is an endorsed MHP risk control intervention strategy. This article provides a narrative review of the types of MHP environmental controls that can improve mobility, as well as the extent to which these environmental controls are considered in MHP risk management and assessment tools. Although a range of possible environmental interventions exist, current tools only consider these in a limited manner. Development of an assessment tool that more comprehensively covers environmental strategies in MHP risk management could help reduce staff injury and improve resident mobility through auditing existing practices and guiding the design of new and refurbished aged care facilities.

• Journal of Korean Medical Science
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• v.33 no.46
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• pp.287.1-287.14
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• 2018

Integrity of authorship and peer review practices are important considerations for ethical publishing. Criteria for authorship, as delineated in the guidelines by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), have undergone evolution over the decades, and now require fulfillment of four criteria, including the need to be able to take responsibility for all aspects of the manuscript in question. Although such updated authorship criteria were published nearly five years ago, still, many major medical and specialist journals have yet to revise their author instructions to conform to this. Inappropriate authorship practices may include gift, guest or ghost authorship. Existing literature suggests that such practices are still widely prevalent, especially in non-English speaking countries. Another emerging problem is that of peer review fraud, mostly by authors, but also rarely by handling editors. There is literature to suggest that a proportion of such fake peer review may be driven by the support of some unscrupulous external editing agencies. Such inappropriate practices with authorship malpractices or disagreement, or peer review fraud, have resulted in more than 600 retractions each, as identified on the retractions database of Retractionwatch.com. There is a need to generate greater awareness, especially in authors from non-English speaking regions of the world, about inappropriate authorship and unethical practices in peer review. Also, support of any external editing agency should be clearly disclosed by authors at the time of submission of a manuscript.