Food safety on board tankers. Results of analysis from 'Healthy Ship' project.
HACCP
food hygiene
food safety
food-handling
microbiological surveillance
seafarers
Journal
International maritime health
ISSN: 2081-3252
Titre abrégé: Int Marit Health
Pays: Poland
ID NLM: 100958373
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Historique:
received:
26
09
2018
accepted:
14
01
2019
revised:
11
01
2019
entrez:
2
4
2019
pubmed:
2
4
2019
medline:
28
8
2019
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Microbiological monitoring of surfaces used for food preparation, as required by the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan, is important in risky conditions as those observed in the kitchens of ships. Limits to introduce a classification of risk levels and methods to adopt in conditions as those occurring in tankers have not been investigated. This paper presents the results of the "Healthy Ship" project on HACCP monitoring of surfaces used in food preparation on Italian flag tankers. Microbiological monitoring was carried out on 19 tankers between 2013 and 2017. Food handlers were also trained on board ship according to HACCP standards. Contact plates (ISO 18593:2004 compliant) were used to determine the colonies and bacterial charge according to the Wirtanen and Salo's method. A total of 1074 samples, 108 before the first course, 168 after the first course, 390 during the period of refresher (2015-2016), and 408 after the refresher training, were obtained from the three main kitchen surfaces: the worktop, cutting board, and kitchen sink. A good level of hygiene was observed in 56.9% of all samples, 0.1% were classified as adequate, and the remaining 43% as poor. The highest contamination was observed on the cutting board and kitchen sink and involved the total aerobic count. The only surface with inadequate levels of hygiene was the worktop. A reduction of contaminated samples was noted after training. Our results suggest that continuous training should be provided for personnel responsible for handling foodstuffs on board ships.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
Microbiological monitoring of surfaces used for food preparation, as required by the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan, is important in risky conditions as those observed in the kitchens of ships. Limits to introduce a classification of risk levels and methods to adopt in conditions as those occurring in tankers have not been investigated. This paper presents the results of the "Healthy Ship" project on HACCP monitoring of surfaces used in food preparation on Italian flag tankers.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
METHODS
Microbiological monitoring was carried out on 19 tankers between 2013 and 2017. Food handlers were also trained on board ship according to HACCP standards. Contact plates (ISO 18593:2004 compliant) were used to determine the colonies and bacterial charge according to the Wirtanen and Salo's method.
RESULTS
RESULTS
A total of 1074 samples, 108 before the first course, 168 after the first course, 390 during the period of refresher (2015-2016), and 408 after the refresher training, were obtained from the three main kitchen surfaces: the worktop, cutting board, and kitchen sink. A good level of hygiene was observed in 56.9% of all samples, 0.1% were classified as adequate, and the remaining 43% as poor. The highest contamination was observed on the cutting board and kitchen sink and involved the total aerobic count. The only surface with inadequate levels of hygiene was the worktop. A reduction of contaminated samples was noted after training.
CONCLUSIONS
CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that continuous training should be provided for personnel responsible for handling foodstuffs on board ships.
Identifiants
pubmed: 30931521
pii: VM/OJS/J/60185
doi: 10.5603/IMH.2019.0011
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM