Evaluating compliance to food safety and the practice of good hygiene in selected hospitals in the capital city of Ghana

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to evaluate compliance to food safety and the practice of good hygiene in selected hospitals in the capital city of Ghana. This study adopted the case study design. The researcher used both qualitative and quantitative research approach. The population for the study was three hundred and twenty (320). The population consisted of all hospital food handlers and supervisors in charge of the catering services in inpatient hospitals in the Trust hospital (Accra), Accra Psychiatric Hospital, 37 Military Hospital, Korle Bu Teaching hospital (Accra) and Ridge Regional Hospital (Accra). One hundred and seventy five (175) respondents were randomly selected for the study. The instruments used in this study were questionnaire and interview guide. The questionnaire data that was collected was then coded to enable the respondents to be grouped into limited number of categories. The SPSS version 16 was used to analyse the primary data. The study results concluded that as a consequence of effective training, the hospital food handlers complied with good hygiene in hospital catering in Ghana by paying attention to their personal hygiene because they believed that food safety is very important to consumer’s health. The respondents used fresh and healthy raw materials in food preparation, they wore caps, masks and protective gloves during food preparation in order to prevent food-borne illnesses, they always kept their work area clean for safe food production. Moreover, the study concluded that the perceived barriers to compliance to food safety operating procedures among food handlers in the selected hospitals in Accra, Ghana, were inadequate storage facilities to store the food, lack of effective training and development programmes regarding food safety issues inadequate authorities to monitor the food preparation and storage process. These were challenges to compliance to food safety operating procedures among food handlers in selected hospitals in Ghana. The study recommended that the Management of the hospitals should organise periodic seminars, workshops and training programmes to equip matrons University of Education, Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh v and cooks with the requisite knowledge regarding food safety issues to enhance the compliance to food safety standards in hospital catering.