Application of (HACCP) System in hospital kitchens and the nutritive value of served meals

Abstract

HACCP is used as food safety assurance system. It has been used to assess the safety of the foods prepared at some catering activities in some hospitals. The results showed that the served items, vegetable salad was found to have microbial loads in the range of l.OX104 to 2.5 Xl06 CFUigm, mold and yeast in the range of 1.4 X104 to 4.6 Xl07 CFUigm and coliforms ranging from 2.3 Xl01 to 5.0 X103 organisrn/gm. Fecal coliforms for the vegetable salad at Damanhour hospital kitchen was found to be 0.9 Xl01 organisrn/gm. Cooked rice was found to have microbial load in the range of 1.5 Xl0 3 to 5.4 Xl03 CFUigm, mold and yeast in the range of 1.0 Xl03 to 6.5 Xl03 CFUigm and coliforms group was found to be 1.3 organisrn/gm at Ahmed Maher hospital kitchen. Cooked macaroni was found to have microbial load in the range of2.5 Xl02 to 1.5 Xl04 CFUigm, mold and yeast in the range of 2.6 Xl02 to 5.0 Xl04 CFUigm and coliforms group ranging from 3.5 Xl01 to 9.0 Xl0 1 organisrn/gm. Cooked chicken wafound to have microbial load in the range of 2.7 Xl0 2 to 6.0 Xl02 CFU/gm, mold and yeast in the range of 1.5 Xl02 to 7.0 Xl02 CFU/gm and coliforms group was found to be 0.9 Xl01 organisrn/gm at Darnanhour hospital kitchen. Cooked pea, cooked squash and boiled meat were found to have microbial load 2.8 Xl02, 1.0 Xl03 and 5.0 Xl03 CFU/gmrespectively, mold and yeast 4.8 Xl03, 2.1 Xl03 and 4.5 Xl03 CFU!gm respectively while cooked squash was found to be coliforms 3.0 Xl01 organism/gm. Implementation of the HACCP system at the hospitals of the study led to on appreciable improvement in the hygienic quality of the served food, as could be shown from the microbiological quality of the different items after implementation,