Abstract
The food safety has become a major issue in hospitals, since patients are especially vulnerable to foodborne illness considered as nosocomial infection.Aims: To assess health hazards in food at a hospital in Fez city (Morocco).Material and Results: Hygienic quality of food samples (n = 81: meals (40%), plants and vegetables (35%); meat / meat products (17%)) and contact surfaces (n = 80: local (32,5;%), equipment (50%) and staff’s hands (17,5%)) was evaluated during 2011, and involved germs have been researched using standard methods. Results interpreted according to the Moroccan and French standards showed that the percentage of food’s non-compliance was 12%, with 32% for plants / vegetables and 7% for meat / meat products.The criminalization of fecal coliform was the important (91%) compared with Staphylococcus aureus (9%). Salmonella sp., Listeria monocytogenes, anaerobic sulphito-reducers, yeasts and molds were not implicated.Contact surfaces analysis showed that 40% of equipment, 38% of local and 29 % of the staff’s hands were not clean. The causative organisms were fecal coliforms (60%) and S. aureus (40 %).Conclusion: Contact surfaces may affect the hygienic quality of food served in the hospital. That could make the warning signal in hospitals for the establishment of a global quality policy to ensure food safety and to prevent healthcare associated infections.
Highlights
Availability of healthy and nourishing food is one of the fundamental person’s rights and an essential factor for adequate health state [1]
Contact surfaces analysis showed that 40% of equipment, 38% of local and 29 % of the staff’s hands were not clean
The food samples received at the laboratory were composed, in decreasing order, of meals (n = 32; 40%), plants and vegetables (n = 28; 35 %), meat and meat products (n = 14; 17%), fish and sea products (n = 5; 6%) and pastries (n = 2; 2 %)
Summary
Availability of healthy and nourishing food is one of the fundamental person’s rights and an essential factor for adequate health state [1]. The hospital food service is largely intended for a population with altered defenses towards the infectious processes (immune-incompetent, at extreme age or in long term hospitalization state) which increase the risk and gravity of disease [2]. This risk varies according to numerous parameters as the microorganism’s nature, the contamination level, the food nature and especially the consumer’s physiological state. Food poisoning represents a real public health problem and is included among the notifiable diseases [4] Their statement is regulated in Morocco by the Royal decret N°. Their statement is regulated in Morocco by the Royal decret N°. 554-65 of 17 Rabii I 1387 (26 June1967) whose orders and rules are precized in the ministerial decret N°. 683-95 of 30 Shawwal 1415 (31 March 1995)
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