Commercial Catering Research Articles

Fresh produce-associated foodborne disease outbreaks in Australia, 2001 to 2017.

Fresh produce is an important source of foodborne outbreaks in Australia. Using descriptive analysis, we examined confirmed and suspected foodborne outbreaks associated with fresh produce in Australia recorded in the OzFoodNet outbreak register from 2001 to 2017. The outbreak register contains reports of foodborne disease outbreaks collected by OzFoodNet epidemiologists and public health officials. A fresh produce outbreak was defined as the occurrence of two or more cases of the same illness in which the investigation had implicated a common food and this food contained fresh produce. A total of 92 fresh produce outbreaks were reported, encompassing 3,422 reported illnesses, 446 hospitalisations and four deaths. Of these outbreaks, 76.1% (70/92) were caused by a known pathogen, with the majority caused by either Salmonella enterica (n = 30) or Norovirus (n = 29). Most outbreaks (77.2%; 71/92) were associated with consumption of foods containing multiple ingredients, some of which were not fresh produce. The largest outbreaks associated with a single fresh produce item included bean sprouts contaminated with S. enterica serovar Saintpaul (419 illnesses and 76 hospitalisations) and semi-dried tomatoes contaminated with Hepatitis A (372 illnesses and 169 hospitalisations). Restaurants (45.7%; n = 42/92) and commercial catering (15.2%: n = 14/92) were common settings for fresh produce outbreaks. Outbreaks occurred in all states and territories of Australia and in all seasons, with an increased frequency in the warmer months (September-May). Although the number of fresh produce-associated outbreaks did not seem to be increasing in Australia, integrated surveillance is needed to rapidly identify sources of infection due to the propensity of these outbreaks to be large and widespread.

A critical analysis of Massmart Holdings and Others v South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union [2022] ZALCJHB 119

South African law under the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA), as amended, confers on the Labour Court the power to adjudicate on issues relating to strikes and to grant an interdict and/or order the payment of just and equitable compensation for any loss attributable to the strike or lockout. At least 48 hours before the strike, workers or their trade unions must give written notice of their intention to strike to the employer, the applicable negotiating council, and the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration. If a strike follows the law, workers who take part in it are shielded from being fired for no other reason than that they are striking. Employees on strike and their trade unions are shielded from lawsuits for any losses or harm sustained while on the protected strike. During an unprotected strike, workers lose the legal protections afforded by labour laws, leaving them open to legal action and possible termination. In the case under review - Massmart Holdings and Others v South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union [2022] ZALCJHB 119 - the trade union, from whom the employer sought compensation for damages caused during a protected strike, objected to the Labour Court's jurisdiction as derived from the LRA. This article provides a critical review of the Labour Court's jurisdiction, particularly in the light of section 68 of the LRA, to order compensation. The analysis revisits previous judgments to test the correctness of the judgment given in the Massmart case.

Коммерческая торговля в системе общественного питания Сталинградской области в 1944–1947 годах

Introduction. The article deals with the creation and development of a commercial trade system in public catering in the city of Stalingrad and the Stalingrad region at the end of the Great Patriotic War and in the first post-war years. Methods. In this study, historical-descriptive (idiographic), historical-genetic, and historical comparative methods, as well as quantitative methods, were used in the examination of newspaper sources. Analysis and results. In order to replenish the budget and meet the demand of the population, already in the spring of 1944, free trade in alcoholic beverages began in the canteens of Stalingrad. In the spring and summer of 1945, the first restaurants and commercial halls at canteens opened in the city. The opening of commercial tea houses in the system of state and cooperative trade became widespread in early 1946 after the decrees of the USSR government were issued. This process took place in the face of an acute shortage of inventory, kitchen equipment, and utensils. A feature of Stalingrad was the complete lack of premises for new catering establishments. As a rule, commercial tea houses were opened at or instead of existing canteens. Since a significant part of the products for commercial tea houses were purchased from collective farms and the population at market prices, the cost of even the simplest dishes was 8–10 times higher than in ration canteens. Procurement of products occurred with difficulty due to the priority of mandatory supplies of agricultural products to the state. After the drought in 1946, even commercial tea houses and restaurants limited the sale of bread. At the same time, there was a second wave of the establishment of commercial restaurants and cafes. In 1947, commercial canteens with a small selection of dishes appeared, occupying a middle position between restaurants and tea houses. Having completed the task of attracting funds from the population, commercial catering enterprises, at the same time, did not become centers for cultural leisure. Most of the teahouses were located in adapted premises that needed repair and were poorly maintained. The assortment of dishes was not maintained, and violations of technology and theft by workers flourished. Most of the profits came from the sale of purchased goods, primarily alcoholic beverages.

Hospital Dietary Services

A hospital's dietary service plays a crucial role in improving the health of hospitalized patients and enhancing the hospital's reputation. To ensure a high-quality dietary service, careful planning, proper layout, systematic menu planning, and sufficient assistance and supervision during meal offerings are essential. The dietician or food service manager is responsible for ensuring that patients receive a well-prepared, balanced diet in an aesthetically pleasing manner. The individual in charge of dietary services oversees inpatient catering, diet counselling, and commercial catering. Additionally, they are responsible for education, training, and research.

Microbiological contamination of cooked meals in collective and commercial catering of public universities of Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire

In Côte d'Ivoire, the absence of legislation in university catering increases the risk of collective food poisoning. The aim of this study was to assess the level of contamination of cooked meals in university catering in the city of Abidjan. To do this, 160 cooked meals samples were taken in the two public universities of Abidjan. The search of mesophilic aerobic germs; Enterobacteriaceae and of Staphylococcus aureus was carried out. The results showed that in general, the microbial loads of the cooked meals analyzed were higher than the criteria required by the regulations. 40.33% of the presumptive Staphylococcus aureus strains tested are confirmed. 20 species belonging to 14 genera of Enterobacteriaceae were isolated from the different cooked meals. The species most frequently isolated from cooked meals is Klebsiella pneumoniae (19.4%) followed by Klebsiella oxytoca (17%) and Serratia liquefaciens (14.5%). In general, efforts still need to be made to improve the level of hygiene in institutional catering and commercial catering. Constant monitoring of the application of hygienic rules must be instituted, in order to prevent the occurrence of food poisoning. The use of microbiologic results of cooked meals in the universities will provide an example for similar collective catering.

Impact of serving time on the microbiological and physicochemical quality of food served during wedding banquet

The aim of the present work is to investigate the microbiological quality and safety of three main dishes served during Malay wedding banquets. The two selected Malay wedding banquets were each prepared by commercial catering services and ‘rewang’ activity (a group of voluntary cooks from the local community) in Selangor. Three types of the dish (chicken, vegetable and cooked rice) were sampled from both banquets and analysed for Total Plate Count (TPC), Total Coliform, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella, and Listeria monocytogenes. The dish samples were taken at 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 hrs after serving. For catering, the TPC for chicken, vegetable and cooked rice at 0 hr were 6.39, 6.21 and 7.13 log CFU/g respectively. None of the samples were contaminated with Salmonella spp. or Listeria spp. The temperature of foods during the serving times averaged between 30 to 50°C which was conducive for bacterial proliferation.

Impact of Awareness Creation Program on Food Safety Management System in Institutional Catering

How do we emphasize the importance of food safety in food handling where the ingredients may be from a standard source but the people and kitchen may not be appropriate or trained for safe food handling? Commercial catering is one of the most flourishing food business globally and in India, it is largely an unorganized sector. There are hotels, restaurants, food stalls, street vendors and institutional catering in schools, colleges, factories, offices, hospitals, marriage halls, and other spaces where large part of population works and/or congregates. The food is either cooked inside the set up or is transported from an external kitchen. The commercial catering is for urban working class consumers who depend on food cooked at these kitchens. The changing work and lifestyle patterns of this demographic, eating out population has almost become a necessity leading to a cultural revolution in eating patterns. Most urban workers consume at least 1 meal per day out of home. Under such circumstances, it is of utmost importance that commercial food establishments serve safe and hygienic food to the consumers.

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE CIRCULATION SECTOR AND THE ECONOMY IN WUHAN, CHINA - A CANONICAL CORRELATION ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT The circulation industry comprises those firms involved in the process that moves the finished products made by the manufacturer to the final consumer via the wholesaler and the retailer. The broad definition of the circulation industry includes all trade in business flows, logistics, information flows, and capital flows. This broad definition includes wholesale and retail trade, residential housing, catering (food services), lodging, transportation and warehousing, and the postal service. The narrow definition of the circulation industry includes: wholesale and retail trade, catering, and logistics[1]. A growing dependence upon the circulation industry has improved the functioning of the Wuhan economy accenting specialization and scale of production. This has resulted in increased research interest in the development of correlations among industries. Xiangdong Liu and Jieshen Shi[2] studied the internal links and the structural equilibrium between commerce and the three industries of the national economy and found that the commerce sector has clear features of productive service in the industrialization in China and further made it clear that the commerce should be an elementary and leading sector. Fan Yang, Qian Lu and Yongfang Ai[3] have studied the correlations among the science and technology sector, the information sector and the equipment manufacturing industry in China focusing on correlative and ripple effects through input-output analysis. They find that the science and technology sector and the information sector have played a leading role in the development of the national economy and that the equipment manufacturing industry has relied the most on the input of the scientific and technological resources. They have also found that the whole level of informational construction is relatively low and that integration with the equipment manufacturing industry was lacking. Naihua Gu, Jiechang Xia[4] have analyzed the motivation of the linkage between the hi-tech and the service sector on the basis of the value-chain model and found that their linkage can extend and increase the value chain of the service sector and raise the level of social productivity and benefits. Weiyang Yu, Weixin Qi[5] have made a study of the relevancy among the industries of the national economy in Qinhuangdao by using the principle of BP Neutral Networking and found that the construction sector has greatly affected the industrial system and that the service sector has become more dependent on the other industries. Yi Cao, Yuming Shen and Ling Qiu[6] adopt input-output methodology to analyze the correlation between the productive service sector and the manufacturing industry in Tianjin. They concluded that both the productive service sector and the manufacturing industry drop and that the productive service sector predominately served the tertiary industry sector. Huijuan Li[7] studied the internal structure of the tertiary sector in China and found that the direct consumption coefficients of its component to the traditional commercial catering and the traffic and postal service were rather high. The direct consumption coefficients were also found to be very low for the emerging finance and insurance service. Li also found that the influence and the induction coefficients of the traditional catering and the public residential service were high, but those of the finance and the insurance sectors were relatively small. Shuhan Liu, Rui Zhang and Lixia Liu[8] have analyzed the correlation between the productive service sector and the manufacturing industry in China and found that the intermediate demand structure of the manufacturing industry to the productive service and the structure of the intermediate input of the productive service industry to the manufacturing industry have continued to be upgraded. The pull effect of the productive service sector to the manufacturing industry is stronger than the push of the former to the latter. Jing Cao[9] has done research on the correlation between the circulation sector and the national economy in China concluding that synthetic correlative relationships exist among them, with the linkage of the wholesale and retail sector to the circulation sector being the strongest while that of the primary industry to it is the weakest. Zhimin Dai[10] has confirmed the mode of the technology transfer among the regional industries by analyzing the relevance. All the studies above have paid close attention to the relevance between the circulation industry and the rest of the economy concluding that close links have existed. These results have provided the necessary theoretical support for this paper.

National outbreak of Salmonella Java phage type 3b variant 9 infection using parallel case–control and case–case study designs, United Kingdom, July to October 2010

Between July and October 2010, a national outbreak comprising 136 cases of Salmonella Java phage type 3b variant 9 was identified by the Health Protection Agency. Most cases were female. Cases had a median age of 39.5 years and lived in London, the South East and East of England. Parallel case–control and case–case study designs were undertaken to test the generated hypotheses. The case–case study aimed to examine if the infection was associated with eating food items purchased from commercial catering settings, and the reference group comprised non-travel related cases of S. Enteritidis infected during the same time period as the cases. The case–control study was designed to examine if the infection was associated with specific food items purchased from commercial catering settings, and recruited case-nominated controls. However, in response to poor recruitment we adapted our methods to investigate food exposures in the same way. Results of epidemiological investigations are compatible with salad vegetables as the potential source, but no common suppliers of salad were identified and no organisms were isolated from environmental and food samples. Limitations in the case–control study highlight the potential value of using a combination of epidemiological methods to investigate outbreaks.

Windows and Barriers in Policy-making: Food Poisoning in Britain, 1945-56

Public awareness of food poisoning developed significantly in Britain in the 1940s with a rise in recorded incidents, especially of salmonella from 1941. This resulted from a combination of institutional and social changes. New legislation and health provision produced a statistical profile of poisoning; infections spread more rapidly and extensively with the expansion of public and commercial catering; and from 1939, the new Ministry of Food, which drew more scientific and industrial expertise into government service, took a lead in promoting debates about the issue. This article examines the post-war policy debates and how the new data on food poisonings contributed to the policy process. The roles of Sir William Savage and the Catering Trades Working Party are evaluated in light of the observations of Pennington and James about the nature of policy-making. The article shows that the institutional, social, and political pressures for significant regulatory change were resisted by a combination of local and national business and political interests.

Food Safety and Foodborne Disease in the 21st Century

Over the past decade there has been a growing recognition of the involvement of the home in several public health and hygiene issues. Perhaps the best understood of these issues is the role of the home in the transmission and acquisition of foodborne disease. The incidence of foodborne disease is increasing globally. Although foodborne disease data collection systems often miss the mass of home-based outbreaks of sporadic infection, it is now accepted that many cases of foodborne illness occur as a result of improper food handling and preparation by consumers in their own kitchens. Some of the most compelling evidence has come from the international data on Salmonella species and Campylobacter species infections.By its very nature, the home is a multifunctional setting and this directly impacts upon the need for better food safety in the home. In particular, the growing population of elderly and other immnocompromised individuals living at home who are likely to be more vulnerable to the impact of foodborne disease is an important aspect to consider. In addition, some developed nations are currently undergoing a dramatic shift in healthcare delivery, resulting in millions of patients nursed at home. Other aspects of the home that are unique in terms of food safety are the use of the home as a daycare centre for preschool age children, the presence of domestic animals in the home and the use of the domestic kitchen for small-scale commercial catering operations. At the global level, domestic food safety issues for the 21st century include the continued globalization of the food supply, the impact of international travel and tourism, and the impact of foodborne disease on developing nations.A number of countries have launched national campaigns to reduce the burden of foodborne disease, including alerting consumers to the need to practice food safety at home. Home hygiene practice and consumer hygiene products are being refined and targeted to areas of risk, including preventing the onward transmission of foodborne illness via the inanimate environment. It has been said that food safety in the home is the last line of defense against foodborne disease, and it is likely that this will remain true for the global population in the foreseeable future.

Public health implications of campylobacter outbreaks in England and Wales, 1995-9: epidemiological and microbiological investigations.

Although campylobacter has been the most commonly recognized bacterial cause of gastrointestinal infection in England and Wales since 1981, there are few reported campylobacter outbreaks. Of the 2374 general outbreaks of infectious intestinal disease reported to CDSC between 1995 and 1999, for which an aetiological agent was identified, campylobacter accounted for only 50 (2%). Foodborne transmission was identified in 35 outbreaks and the majority took place in commercial catering establishments; waterborne transmission was responsible for a further four outbreaks. Isolates of Campylobacter jejuni were referred for typing from 25 outbreaks. In 13 outbreaks all isolates were the same subtype, as defined by serotype and phage type, while in the remainder more than one campylobacter subtype was involved.

The Sous‐vide System for Preparing Chilled Meals

Recent interest in food production systems which provide dishes for consumption at a later time, coupled with the heightened concern over food safety, have led many institutions to become involved in the study of the sous‐vide cooking method. Research studies on the sous‐vide system over the last five years, together with the experience of commercial catering establishments using the system are reported. The constraints and implications of producing food dishes by this method are highlighted drawing attention not only to the positive attributes, but also to the limitations of the system if it is wrongly understood or misused.

Illustrating Commercial Catering in Combination Ovens

This photo-story illustrates a presentation on commercial catering made at the 1986 IMPI Symposium and summarized in JMPE2 21(3): 185–6 Index Number 1152. It also illustrates the development of microwave cooking over a 25-year period from its infancy to the first generation of microwave combination ovens with vending machines.

Democracy and oligarchy in trade unions: The independent trade unions in the Transvaal and the Western province general workers’ union in the 1970s

The aim of this paper is to examine democracy and oligarchy in the independent trade unions in the Transvaal and the Western Province General Workers Union in the 1970s. The unions considered in the Transvaal comprise the Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSA TU) and the Consultative Committee of Black Trade Unions. The Consultative unions consisted of the Commercial Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (CCA WUSA) and a large proportion of the present Council of Unions of South Africa (CUSA). This study covers the period from the foundation of the unions in the early 1970s to the second half of 1979 for the Transvaal unions and to the end of 1980 for the Western Province General Workers’ Union. It is divided into two major sections. The first deals with theories of democracy and oligarchy in trade unions by considering Michels’ iron law of oligarchy. His iron law is evaluated in the light of two centuries of experience in the British trade unions as analysed mainly by the Webbs, Clegg and Hyman. Af...