Evaluation of the staff knowledge levels in professional kitchens on seafood safety

Importance of nutrition has become a major concern in the last decades for the healthy development of the human body, its functioning and protection from diseases. In food chain, seafood are food products that involve most vital nutrients for human diet. Human body cannot synthesize essential nutrients, so they are supposed to be taken in via food consumption. Processing and use of seafood products in industrial kitchens has risen in the last 50 years, where in Turkey has risen in the last 25 years. From societal consumption point of view, seafood seems to have entered into all kinds of commercial kitchens from fast food restaurants to five star hotels. Processed seafood provide many advantages to consumers due to their long shelf life, aromatic characteristics and ease of usage; yet following hygiene and sanitation rules at storage and usage conditions is crucial. Hence, seafood treatment knowledge needs to be prioritized, and especially high proficiency level of professional kitchen managers is vital. In this study, in order to determine how well the employees who use processed seafood products, which facilities in mass consumption have knowledge about the products they use and how correctly they use them, a questionnaire study was conducted within the boundaries of Istanbul with survey sampling method. In the survey applied, the question set which measures the knowledge level of the personnel working in the kitchen of professional seafood about food safety, was focused on issues such as acceptance criteria, stock rotation, cold chain, contamination, physical-chemical-biological risks and also questions about fresh seafood. The study was continued until a sample of 311 people were reached. A sample of 311 people were reached as a result of interviews conducted in 50 corparation operating in certain regions of Istanbul. The survey was examined separately in three occupational groups: 156 kitchen workers, 92 service personnel and 52 responsible managers. Occupaitonal groups that has less then 30 members were not included in the survey. The survey consists of three parts. In the first part of the survey form, there are 9 questions to determine the demographic characteristics of the employees and operators in the seafood processing and food-drink business. In the second part of the survey form, 24 questions were asked using the Likert scale in order to understand the thoughts and feelings of the participants about the topic. The third part of the survey form consists of multiple choice questions to measure the level of knowledge about food safety, hygiene and HACCP system. As a result of the evaluations, it was found that most of the personnel have inadequate training to prevent cross-contamination, insufficient in education issues, are not precautious in raw material supply, use right equipments, and the inspection mechanisms in operations do not function appropriately. The failures that may arise from these findings in the enterprise are at the level to be corrected by the aquaculture and aquatic sciences engineers. Engineers to be employed periodically or permanently will be able to provide the necessary food safety training to the personnel, introduce the characteristics of the fisheries to be used in the enterprise, and control the infrastructure and control mechanism.