IJFSNPHT 2017 Volume 9 Issue 2

International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition, Public Health and Technology (IJFSNPHT) ISSN: 0975 – 8712

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Food safety and food-borne illness approach of healthcare workers. İrem Özay, Bedia Ayhan Özyıldırım. IJFSNPHT (2017), 9(2):7-19

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Title:

Food safety and food-borne illness approach of healthcare workers

Authors & Affiliation:

İrem Özay1, Bedia Ayhan Özyıldırım2

1 Lecturer of Haliç University, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, İmrahor Street, No: 82, Beyoğlu district, İstanbul, TURKEY.

2 Professor of İstanbul University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Public Health, Çapa district, 34093, İstanbul, TURKEY.

iremozay@gmail.com, bayhan@istanbul.edu.tr

Abstract:

Each year, foodborne diseases cause significant health problems in millions of people all over the world. Because of this, in recent years food safety has become a subject of growing importance due to its public health and economical dimensions. In the light of these facts, our study was conducted in İstanbul among 107 healthcare workers (doctors, nurses and midwives) who work in Primary Healthcare Centers. Socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge about food safety, food-borne diseases and food-handling practices of participants were determined through face to face questionnaires. When food preferences of participants are considered, we see that the most important factor in purchasing decisions are appearance and freshness. It’s found that doctors pay low attention to expiry dates than nurses and midwives (p<0.05). 91.6% of participants think that main problem that may be caused by foods is allergies. All participants agree on the opinion that expired products would cause food poisoning. 30.8% of participants don’t know temperatures of refrigirators and freezers. It’s found that the information which cross-contamination leads to food-borne illnesses is missing. Increasing the knowledge of consumers should be the main target in the prevention of foodborne illness. In this regard, community education programs should be prepared by healthcare workers. Therefore, priority should be set to raise the knowledge of healthcare workers and extensive research should be made to determine which issues to focus on. Also, tools like television-radio programs, social media, magazines-newspapers should be used to share the information of current approaches about food safety with public.

Key Words: Consumer attitudes, food safety, food-borne diseases, food-borne illness, public health.