Foreign workers’ food handling knowledge in Shah Alam’s restaurant

Abstract

This cross sectional study aimed to explore the pattern of foreign workers demographic and assess their level of food handling knowledge in the restaurants. It was done in Shah Alam restaurants with 350 respondents participated. 14 restaurants were included in the data collection. Most of the respondents working in restaurants are from Indonesia and India while there also workers from Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal, Pakistan and Yemen. Majority of the respondents agreed with mean score of 4.00 and above based on 9 questions. The lowest mean score were derived from the danger zone temperature of between 5^oC-60^oC, which indicate that the workers are not familiar with the safe food handling temperature. Most foreign workers had informal on the job training. However, a collective and structured training by local authority should be provided. The training should include modules and demo video in each foreign workers familiar language to ensure better understanding.

Keywords: foreign worker; food handling, knowledge; food borne illness; restaurant; Shah Alam