Status of Food Safety in Correctional Homes: A Mixed-methods Study from West Bengal, India

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Food safety and hygiene management are an important global public health concern. In correctional homes, people live with sketchy basic amenities and health-care facilities. Here the eating establishments run through mass self-catering services by inmates themselves. As noncompliance to hygienic and sanitary food handling can pose threat to food-borne illnesses, the current study was conducted to assess the status and bottleneck of safe food practice in eating establishments of correctional homes. Materials and Methods: A mixed-methods cross-sectional study was conducted over 10 months in three correctional homes of Kolkata. With pro forma based on Food Safety and Standard Rules, food and environmental hygiene of eating establishments was observed and thirty food handlers were assessed for knowledge and practice related to food hygiene. Two food samples from each establishment were collected for laboratory examination for contamination, if any. Superintendents and welfare officers were interviewed in-depth for barriers toward safe food practice. QDA miner lite, 2022 was used for the analysis. Results: All the three eating establishments were categorized as “poor” having total scores of <50% in various facets of food safety and none of the food handlers scored above cut-off value. One food sample has showed bacterial growth after incubation. Content analysis revealed knowledge gap in part of handlers besides unstructured monitoring, lack of health check-ups to have maximum coding frequency, and strongest links. Conclusion: Food safety in correctional homes under the study at each step including monitoring is dreary. Training of food handlers and their supervisors besides regular health screening is the need of the hour.