Survey of Food Allergy Perception of Teachers and Operators of Child Care Facilities: Focusing on Jung-gu and Dong-gu in Daejeon

This study was conducted to investigate the status of food allergy knowledge and management of the teachers and operators of child care facilities in the Daejeon Area. Surveys of 262 teachers and 50 operators of child care facilities in Dong-gu and Jung-gu in Daejeon were conducted. The prevalence of food allergies was found to be 3.6% (102 children). The average score of teachers in the anaphylaxis knowledge survey was 0.18±0.22. Additionally, the needs for food allergy education among teachers and operators was 88.2% and 98%, respectively. The survey revealed that all child care facilities in this study provide food service menus to parents, but only 14 facilities (28%) provided alternative food to children with food allergies, and some of these 14 facilities did not provide adequate alternatives. To ensure the safety and healthy growth of children with food allergies, it is necessary to provide food allergy education to teachers and operators, as well as to establish safe food service and allergy management systems in all child care facilities.

Child-Care Facility and Kindergarten's Demands on Foodservice Support by Center for Child-Care Foodservice Management (CCFSM) in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do / 대한지역사회영양학회지

The purpose of this study was to analyze the differences between child-care facilities and kindergartens towards the need for foodservice support by Center for Child-Care Foodservice Management (CCFSM). For this study, questionnaires were sent out from August of 2008 to April of 2009 to directors of 1,478 child care facilities and 299 kindergartens in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do via postal service. A total of 267 questionnaires were usable with 203 (13.7%) of child-care facilities and 64 (21.4%) of kindergartens. Statistical data were analyzed by SPSS 15.0 for descriptive analysis and t-test. For political and administrative support, government funding for foodservice was the highest need and hiring nutritionists was significantly different by type of facility (p < 0.01). Both child-care facilities (4.29) and kindergartens (4.41) demanded the balanced menu from CCFSM. There were significant differences of "information about food material sanitation management" (p < 0.05), "hygiene safety management method according to working process" (p < 0.05), "hygiene safety management method of foodservice facilities and equipment" (p < 0.05). In education and training contents from center, "types and methods to manage foodservice facilities and equipment" for directors, "dietary education by age" for teachers, and "the rules of personal sanitation and working process" and "gas, electricity and fire prevention" for culinary workers had the highest mean score of requirements.