Public food service in Milan city and Hinterland: food-handlers training level (Part 2)

The prevention and control of foodborne diseases play an important role in public health and the responsibility of food-handlers is of great concern: their training on food safety is particularly required in the critical sector of public food service establishments. The food-handlers knowledge has been evaluated by a questionnaire filled up in two Public Health Units (PHU) in Milan City and Milan hinterland. Only 11.5% of food-handlers turned at to be good trained; the wrong answers are concentrated on the section titled "temperatures management" (68 and 59% in Milan City and in Milan hinterland, respectively). Only for 31.4% of food-handlers the attendance to training courses is well documented, although the knowledge level seems to be partially influenced by training activity: exclusively in Milan City food-handlers an highly significant difference has been found among "trained" and "no-trained" workers in correct answers about temperatures management (p= 0.0046). The frequency of exact answers isn't associated to the satisfaction level revealed during inspection of restaurants. Focusing the attention on the insufficient efficacy of training courses and the lacking connection between knowledge and behaviour, a critical revision of training activity quality seems to be necessary. In future some professional training activities in the field should be promoted.