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Abstract
Over the last two decades, only a handful of research have been conducted pertaining to food safety in the aviation industry. The gap of knowledge in in-flight food safety literature has long been silenced. Therefore, it was the objective of this study to conduct preliminary screenings to evaluate the environmental quality of the service equipment (GE), safety equipment (SE) and common facilities (CF) within the confinement of commercial aeroplanes in Malaysia. A total of 112 swab samples (n = 112) were analyzed to detect the prevalence of Escherichia coli, Vibrio, Salmonella and coliforms using conventional microbiological methods. The qualitative aerobic mesophilic plate count revealed that 99 (88.39%) and 13 (11.61%) were reported as positive and negative samples, respectively. It was reported that all 17 samples taken from the long-haul flight were positive, with 8 (9.14%), 4 (3.57%) and 5 (4.46%) samples belonging to the GE, SE, and CF, respectively. Forty-five positive swab samples taken from medium-haul flight sectors showed that 30 (26.79%), 8 (9.14%), 7 (6.25%) samples were that of the GE, SE, and CF, respectively. Meanwhile, 19 (16.96%), 8 (9.14%), and 10 (8.93%) of the shorthaul flights samples were that of the GE, SE, and CF, respectively. It was therefore concluded that GE, SE and CF were reported at 57 (50.89%), 20 (17.86%) and 22 (19.64%), respectively. In view of the large numbers and high percentages of positive sample results, it is our opinion that the cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting procedures of the galley equipment, safety equipment and common facilities are revisited. The assurance in conformance to the hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) management system may enhance the safety and reliability of all stakeholders especially the flight attendants who are the final custodians of the environmental hygiene and that of themselves.
Highlights
The odds of having difficulty conducting research in the confinement of commercial aeroplanes that fly 35,000-40,000 feet above sea level is undeniably high
On 16th July 2018, an Airbus A330-300 was used to fly the passengers across the South China Sea from Kota Kinabalu (BKI) into Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
Taking into account that this flight sector was a short-haul flight, time was the indefinite constraint, only the common facilities were sampled for microbial analysis
Summary
The odds of having difficulty conducting research in the confinement of commercial aeroplanes that fly 35,000-40,000 feet above sea level is undeniably high. Such difficulty may be contributed and limited by stringent regulatory requirements that govern the security and safety of the aviation industry. It is intended to indicate the level of microorganisms in a product It is considered the most widely used technique or tool for evaluating microorganisms in foods (Brackett, 2014). The plate count technique is the traditional method used for the quality assurance of probiotic products Even though this method provides information about the microbial load in food samples, it is not without any limitations. Conditions used in standard plate count may not be able to enumerate many fungi and as a result other important organisms, intended or otherwise, are missed out by this procedure
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