Ensuring food safety in institutions through catering employee health monitoring

ABSTRACT

The employment medicals carried out by the preventive Medicine Sub-Division of the Riyadh Military Hospital on catering employees in locations under its remit from September 1993-December 1996 were reviewed in order to assess the yield and justify the need for this aspect of occupational health programme. Out of 1888 employees screened during the period only 6 were found unfit. A prospective analysis of stools from 1000 consecutive catering medicals from this largely expatriate staff showed an infection rate of 9.8%. The most prevalent helminths were Trichuris trichiura [1.8%], hookworm [1.5%] and Ascaris Lumbricoides [1.2%]; under protozoa was Giardia Lamlia [1.4%]; whereas the bacteria were mostly of salmonella species [1.7%]. Though the number found unfit was small, the prevention, by screaming these workers, of the transmission of these pathogens to the population they serve through food contamination, justifies the need for this health monitoring programme