An evaluation of food safety sanitation management practices of food manufacturing companies that supply foods to school foodservice

This study was conducted to evaluate the sanitation management practices in food manufacturing companiesthat supply food and food ingredients to school foodservice operations. Subjects consisted of 34 foodmanufacturing factories located in the Daegu and Gyeongbuk areas. Sanitation performance was self-evaluatedusing a Likert 5-point scale. The total mean score for factory sanitation performance was 4.72. Scores forperceived sanitation management performance in the factories were as follows: management of material (4.90);personal hygiene (4.78); management of work (4.71); management of workplace and vicinity (4.68); and foodand raw material transportation (4.67). Participating companies that had HACCP certification programs scoredhigh on the following sanitation inspection items: washing and sanitation guides, adequate equipment for correcthand washing, and sanitation of raw material delivery vans. The mean frequency for employee sanitationeducation was 2.8 times per month. Factory managers believed that their sanitation management programs kepttheir food safe and that the food was produced and delivered with a high degree of safety. However, they thoughtthat food sanitation standardization was needed in order to supply high-quality and safe food items. In termsof traceability, 58.8% of the raw materials were traceable and 61.8% of the manufactured products were traceable.Sanitation management performance scores for the participating food manufacturing companies were high,although the soybean sprouts processing companies had comparatively low scores. Management reinforcementof employee sanitation education and a sense of duty and pride among factory employees will promote adequateand appropriate sanitation management performance for food safety and quality in factories that supply foodand ingredients to school foodservice operations.