The foodservice sector : assessment and operative instruments to improve the safety

The foodservice centers, in these last years, increased their performance by increasing productivity and the technological level but, at the same time, still represent a context where worker safety is put at great risk because, especially in the expressed productive organization (the so-called fresh-hot link), the times are very concentrated in order to prepare all meals provided within the time required by the customers. The foodservice personnel is often young, with a very short experience and employed in a seasonal way. The aim of this study was twofold: firstly to identify the major accidents reported in a catering company in three years, the other to present an equipment analysis methodology in such a way that we can provide, to those who must manage them, an approach based on “risk analysis model”. Data were collected starting from the analysis of all complaints for accidents recorded in the three years 2006/2008 occurred in a Catering Company. The details were then divided according to type of injury suffered by the worker, the place where the accident occurred, the days of prognosis and possibly the equipment that caused the damage. Through the objective analysis of these data were constructed graphs for equipment deemed most dangerous by relating the severity of the damage with the probability (risk analysis model): then actions to be taken in order to manage equipment safely were identified.