Information, care, and behaviors of the kitchen personel working in the hotel kitchens on food security

This research was planned and conducted in accordance with the opinion and applications of the kitchen staff in the four different countries (Turkey, Germany, Spain, and Dubai ) in order to specify the applications of information and attitude about food safety in the kitchens where they were working.In the scope of research, questionnaire was conducted to total 473 kitchen personnel working in the four and five star hotels in İstanbul, Ankara, and Antalya, which are the three biggest touristic cities of Turkey, in Sevilla of Spain, in Dubai of United Arab Emirates, and in Dusseldorf of Germany. In order to obtain the data, the questionairre form which had been developed by the researcher and that included total 78 criterions was conducted to the kitchen personnel who were working in nthe hotels. In order to evaluate the data obtained from the study and to constitute the tables, SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 15 has been used. The points obtained from the likert type scale that was used in order to measure the information, care, and behavior of the kitchen personel on food safety were presented as average and standard deviation. But, fort he presentation of Categorical variables ( for instance, demographic characteristics, studying situation, etc. ), frequency and percentage values were used. While evaluating Categorical variables, Chi-Square (X2) test was used. However, while comparing the quantitative variables, Student?s t test was applied in order to compare the two groups, and one way variance analysis was applied while comparing three or more groups. As the result of comparing three or more groups, in order to determine amongst which groups the difference existed at the results that were considered meaninful statistically, Tukey multi comparing test was used. On the other hand, in order to investigate the relations amongst the information, behavior, and care points of all the employees, the method of Pearson correlation analysis was used. In all the statistical analyses, the values p<0.05 and p<0.01 were accepted as the materiality level.Whether the kitchen personnel food safety information points indicated difference according to the countries or not was investigated by the one-way analysis of variance. According to the results obtained, it was determined that the food safety information levels of the personnel indicated statistical meaningful difference according to the countries (p<0.01). In order to determine amongst which countries there existed difference according to food safety information points, as the result of the performed Tukey multi-comparing test, it was found out that the food safety information points? average of the kitchen staff who were working in Germany (18.90) was meaninfully higher than the other three countries (p<0.01). In accordance with the food safety information points? averages of the personnel, it has been determined that Turkey (14.61), Dubai (15.98), and Spain (15.18) are similar (p>0.05).Whether the food safety behavior points of the kitchen personnel differed according to the countries or not was examined by the one way variance analysis, and it was determined the food safety behavior levels of the personnel differed meaningfully in accordance with the countries statistically according to the reasons obtained (p<0.01). In order to determine amongst which countries there was difference according to the food safety behavior points, as the result of Tukey multi comparing test carried out, it was found out that the average of the food safety information points of the personnel working in Germany (63.08) was meaningfully higher than the other three countries (p<0.01). In accordance with the averages of the food safety information points of the personnel, Turkey (60.08), Dubai (60.53), and Spain (58.72) were similar (p>0.05).Whether the food safety care points of the kitchen personnel differed according to the countries or not was examined by the one way analysis of variance. In accordance with the results obtained, it was determined that the food safety cares of the personnel differed statistically meaningfully according to the countries (p<0.01).Considering the food safety care points, in order to determine amongst which countries there existed difference, as the result of the Tukey multi comparing test performed, it was found out that the average of the food safety information points of the kitchen personnel working in Germany (35.12) was meaningfully higher than the other three countries (p<0.01). According to the averages of the food safety care points, it was determined that Turkey (33.61), Dubai (32.09), and Spain (33.19) were similar (p>0.05).In the light of this information; HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points ) program which was a definite active control method of the hotels should be applied, including this program, the critical control points must be determined on every step of the production chain (CCP), supervising should be performed at these points, and the measures to stop the contamination ought to be taken. Hotel personnel should be trained on preparing secure food, hygiene, and sanitation.Key Words : Hotel, hygiene, sanitation, food safety.