Avaliação do perfil e práticas em segurança alimentar de gestores e operadores de um restaurante comercial de uma cidade do Seridó Oriental Paraibano.

Abstract

The meal production involves tools to assure safety and quality, in order to promote, maintain or even to recover collective and individuals health of user who benefit of the served meal. Although, food handling in meal production can be a contamination source of microorganisms detrimental to human health. Thus, meal production workers are essential in the food source disease prevention to the population that feed outside their homes. The aim of this work was to evaluate food safety practices and profile of managers and workers from private restaurants located in a city from Oriental Serido, Paraiba state. It was a transversal, descriptive, qualitative approach field research, developed in a private restaurante in the city of Picuí/PB. Two semi-structured questionnaires were utilized as analysis tools, applied to establishment entrepreneur and food handlers, consisting both of twenty questions regarding socioeconomic-demographic profile and food safety practices knowledge. The results demonstrated that when training interactions were evaluated, work environment, position experience level, working hours and sociodemographic questions also should be considered, thus they can influence negative behaviour in relation to hygiene practices and result in an elevate not-compliance numbers, as well, show the training and qualification necessity of handlers in food safety, for they are extremely important and must be carried out constantly in order to possibilite the behaviour change of handlers through attitudes and practices that do not contribute to the risk of DTA (food related diseases), in this way, the low professional qualification of food handlers, can be related directly to food contamination, deriving from diseases, poorly hygiene habits and inadequate practices in the meal productive process. It is a necessity of more investments in managers and workers qualification in relation to food safety practices, aiming the safe food production to the customers.