Knowledge of Food Business Workers About Food Safety System in Mardin

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the general knowledge about food safety programs of workers employed in restaurants and other food business operators in Mardin. The survey was conducted from January to February involving 140 food businesses. A total of 192 food business workers had been reached. The results showed that approximately half (53,6%) of the workers’ work experience in any kind of food business was 1 to 5 years, majority (85,9%) of food workers ages were between 19 and 36 and 82,3% were males. 51% of workers stated that they had health check-up during recruitment. In addition, altough 80,7% of workers didn’t heard about HACCP system before, 43,6% of them defined HACCP system properly. The majority of responders (75,5%) said food safety education is given on a regular basis, however 34,9% state that they have taken such education only at the beginning of their job. A majority of surveyed workers state they were aware of their responsibilities about the matters relate to food safety (71,9 %). The results showed that knowledge of employees about food safety is insufficient so for better results organizing some trainig programs is suggested.