Meals served to children and elderly in care units in Portugal: have they quality and safety?

Fernandes, Daniela; Maia, Carla; Furtado, Rosália; Belo Correia, Cristina; Pedroso, Laurentina; Santos, Maria Isabel

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/2518

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Authors

Fernandes, Daniela

Maia, Carla

Furtado, Rosália

Belo Correia, Cristina

Pedroso, Laurentina

Santos, Maria Isabel

Abstract(s)

Despite the advances in food science and technology, providing safe meals is still a source of restlessness. This is due to society changes, such as increasing urbanization and globalization of food distribution that conduced to completely different social and eating habits. Children and elderly can no longer be cared for by family, and normally people resort to kindergartens and care homes. These new habits have led to an increase in the number of foodborne diseases. Among the establishments that host these specific groups, high risk groups for this type of illness are the Private Institutions of Social Solidarity. This work had as main objectives to evaluate the microbiological quality of meals and the knowledge hygiene and food safety (HFS) of food handlers in a Nursery and Kindergarten (NK), in a Continuing Care Unit (CCU) and in a Care Home (CH). Ninety samples of prepared meals were evaluated for: Microorganisms at 30 °C, fungi, Enterobacteriaceae, Escherichia coli, Clostridium perfringens, coagulase-positive staphylococci, Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella spp. The median obtained for microorganisms at 30 °C was 3.42 log cfu/g, while for Enterobacteriaceae the median was 1.30 log cfu/g. It was verified that the higher levels found were at CH and the lowest were in NK. It was detected E. coli (2.2%), coagulase-positive staphylococci (1.1%) and B. cereus (1.1%) in some samples but at low levels. All samples have proved negative for Salmonella, L. monocytogenes and C. perfringens. 28.9% of the analyzed samples had an unsatisfactory result, which may indicate some difficulties in the HFS. Regarding the knowledge of handlers in HFS it was found that there are some failures. The results indicate that the microbiological quality of the meals served do not constitute a public health issue, but the education of the food handlers in HFS need some improvements.