Food hygiene supervision during a major conference in Beijing: Descriptive analysis of impact on risk factors

The purpose of this study is to establish a baseline observation of food hygiene supervision and to further identify risk factors and individual behaviors needing priority attention during major conferences. A convenience sample of five hotels participating in a conference was recruited from a list obtained from the Institute of Disease Prevention and Control of People's Liberation Army. We selected three risk factors for which to measure compliance: handwashing, cleaning and sanitizing work surfaces, and food temperature control; each comprised of several individual behaviors. In Compliance percentages were utilized to measure the effectiveness of supervision over each risk factor and individual behavior. A goal of ≥90% compliance was set and a 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to indicate reliability. Our results showed that In Compliance percentages of food temperature control (98.3%; 97.5-99.1%) and cleaning and sanitizing work surfaces (94.5%; 93.5-95.5%) were within the compliance goal set, but handwashing (78.8%; 77.5-80.1%) compliance was significantly low. Eleven individual handwashing behaviors and one cleaning and sanitizing work surfaces behavior needed to improve. For “when to wash hands,” three individual behaviors had high compliance on the first few days, then significantly decreased, after which two items improved to ≥90% while the other four items continued to have low compliance. For “how to wash hands,” one item had high compliance on the first few days, subsequently decreased, and slightly improved at the end, while three other items sustained low compliance. Only one individual item within cleaning and sanitizing work surfaces had low initial compliance but improved to 100% for the last seven days of the conference. These findings suggest that routine supervision is efficacious for reducing the risks of cross-contamination and temperature control, but it is still weak at controlling hand hygiene.

► We select three risk factors of foodborne illness in this study. ► We identify risk factors and individual behavior items needing priority attention. ► We further assess trends over time in the occurrence of these factors. ► Routine supervision is weak at controlling hand hygiene.