THE ROLE OF CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF FOOD SAFETY IN HOSPITAL AND HEALTH UNITS, AS A TOOL FOR HACCP ASSISTANTS AND SIMULATORS

摘要

Food safety in the catering sector of hospitals and other health care units is a very sensitive issue and can be a challenge due to several factors. Patients are particularly susceptible to foodborne illnesses because of disease, medication, malnutrition, or because their immune system is compromised as a result of age, infection or pregnancy. At the same time in hospitals it is not always possible to invest the same amounts on kitchen/ laboratory equipment and quality control, as in food industry. The ESTIAS1S project -a European Union and Greece co-founded program- undertook initiatives and targeted actions in the direction of Food safety and Hygiene management in hospitals. An extended sampling plan for microbiological testing of surfaces and food was implemented in order to highlight the importance of control strategies. Final data consisted of nonparametric values so the analysis performed was for frequencies and for cross tabulation. Data mining was performed with the "a priori" algorithm in order to determine the most frequent cases and the association rules. The results demonstrate the significance of GHPs (Good Hygiene Practices) and offer valuable tools for HACCP (Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points) simulators.