Hygienically quality, applications of occupational health and safety of food producing businesses in Bitlis

In the production of healthy and safety food, in addition the business and management practices based on the principles of hygiene and sanitation, the principles of occupational health and safety that enable food workers to perform production in a healthy and safety workplace environment must be applied unconditionally and continuously. In this thesis study, hygienic quality and occupational health and safety practices of food businesses operating in the province of Bitlis were investigated. 51 food businesses, operating in Merkez district and other districts of Bitlis province, voluntarily accepting to participate in the research and producing various food products were included in the research. The obtained data were statistically evaluated in the IBM SPSS 25.0 package program. Descriptive statistics were given for categorical and continuous variables, and the relationships between categorical variables were analyzed with Chi-Square test and Fisher's Exact test. p<0.05 level was considered statistically significant. It has been determined that only 24 businesses out of 51 businesses provide periodic training to their personnel at the control points that show the compliance of the food safety system in food businesses. It was observed that the inconvenience of storage conditions was 45.1% (n=23) at the control points showing the suitability of product hygiene in food businesses. It was seen that 43.1% (n=22) of the establishments were not suitable in terms of the presence and use of hand disinfectant at the control points showing the suitability of business hygiene in food establishments. It was determined, according to the distribution of some characteristics of food businesses related to occupational health and safety, that 21.6% (n=11) did not have a responsible manager, 86.3% (n=44) did not have a workplace doctor, and 66.7% (n=34) risk analysis was not performed. It was observed, according to the distribution of some food health-related characteristics of food businesses, that 37.3% (n=19) of the businesses did not have a HACCP plan, 54.9% (n=28) did not have a certificate of conformity with the food codex, and 17.6% of the businesses (n=9) was not inspected by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. It was determined that 27 (52.9%) of 51 businesses did not give training on HACCP and 88.9% (n=24) of these businesses had occupational accidents in the last 5 years (p<0.05). In order to ensure and maintain both food safety and occupational health and safety, business owners, responsible managers and food workers should be aware of their responsibilities under all circumstances, and the state should continue its duty to supervise food businesses without interruption.