Investigation case-2019: food safety vs. handling-training in shops of a public university of Guatemala

Abstract

Introduction: According to (ISO 22000: 2018 (Official Translation), 2018) food safety is related to the presence of physical, chemical and microbiological hazards and that they have to do with food consumption; Therefore, the handler must be trained frequently in order to prevent or reduce a danger of frequent contamination by Escherichia coli, which is a source of foodborne infection-ETA's and whose origin depends on good manufacturing practices. For this reason, this 2019 case article will evaluate, through the monitoring of food audits and sampling, how bad food practices can be reduced, validating the effectiveness of safety with frequent training for handlers. Objectives: Evaluate food safety in food outlets at a Public University, during the year 2019. Monitor good manufacturing practices of food handlers through training received. Validate the importance of food safety through training received during 2019. Methodology: Based on this, the population for this case-study considered the visits to stores of the Public University of Guatemala from month to month, being a total of 1529 per year, excluding stores closed during the scheduled visit; in these records, observational type parameters of place and handlers who attended were applied and for the taking of food sample, the one that they were selling at that moment was collected; later they were taken to the food microbiological control laboratory, in order to process them for the analysis of Escherichia coli; which was indicative of fecal contamination of human origin; in this phase the design is experimental and for its analysis the Excel program was applied for the interpretation of results, determining whether or not it was suitable for human consumption and with this it was compared with the acceptability values ​​of the Central American Regulation-RTCA. Finally, for the training of handlers, they were carried out between 1 or 2 times a month; according to the number of handlers registered and who have complied with the requirements of the Health Card and the Lung Card; as well as didactic resources were planned for the development of training, such as theoretical learning, approach, and resolution of problems. The evaluation for this training was defined based on indicators of good manufacturing practices. Results: 139 (100%) outlets were visited each month; finding only 108 (77.70%) open and 31 (22.30%) closed, excluding the latter for this case study. On the other hand, 1297 (100%) foods were obtained, of which only 767 (59.14%) were accepted and processed, for which they were processed for Escherichia coli analysis; which is indicative of fecal contamination of human origin and that these results showed that 722 (92%) foods were suitable and 45 (5.87%) foods were not suitable for human consumption; Finally, during the year, 18 training sessions were carried out and 397 people were trained, 155 (39.04%) being men, 242 (60.96%) women. Conclusions: The present investigation-case demonstrated the importance of visiting the stores monthly and that taking a food from the stores and processing it allowed to increase the frequency of the application of good manufacturing practices and that 1297 (85%) of 1529 stores were visited. (100%). On the other hand, this article demonstrated the importance of maintaining food safety in stores, since 767 samples (100%) were obtained and processed for Escherichia coli analysis; indicated that 722 (94.13%) foods were fit for human consumption and 45 (5.90%) foods were not fit for human consumption. Finally, all public universities are urged to conduct this type of research to maintain food safety for all their consumers and thereby avoid microbiological risk and danger.